For China’s Women, More Opportunities, More Pitfalls
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/26/world/asia/26iht-china.html?_r=1&emc=eta1
BEIJING — The question that dashed Angel Feng’s job prospects always came last.
那个严重冲击冯小姐职业前景的问题总是出现在最后关头。
Fluent in Chinese, English, French and Japanese, the 26-year-old graduate of a business school in France interviewed between January and April with half a dozen companies in Beijing, hoping for her first job in the private sector, where salaries are highest.
26岁的冯小姐毕业于法国一所商业学校，能说流利的中、英、法和日语。今年一月至四月间她一直在北京的几所大公司面试，期望能在薪酬较高的私企中找到自己毕业后的第一份工作。
“The boss would ask several questions about my qualifications, then he’d say: ‘I see you just got married. When will you have a baby?’ It was always the last question. I’d say not for five years, at least, but they didn’t believe me,” Ms. Feng said.
冯小姐说：“老板都会问几个有关我资历的问题，然后他们会说：‘我看你刚刚结婚，打算什么时候生小孩儿？’最后一个问题一定是这个。我会说近五年内肯定不会，但是他们根本不信。”
Three decades after China embarked on dazzling economic reforms, much has changed for women. Unlike their mothers, whose working — and, often, private — lives were determined by the state, women today can largely choose their paths. Rural women are no longer tethered to communes; urban women no longer are assigned jobs for life or need permission from work units to marry, although all women must apply for permission to have a child.
中国改革开放三十多年后，女性的生活发生了很大变化。现代女性不像她们的母亲那一辈人，工作和私人生活常常由国家决定，她们很大程度上可以选择自己的发展途径。农村妇女不再被限制在公社；都市女性也不再被安排一辈子做某一份工作，结婚也不再需要得到单位的允许，尽管她们还是得获得准生证才能生孩子。(which is really funny)
Yet along with freedom has come risk, as socialist-era structures are dismantled and powerful cultural traditions that value men over women, long held in abeyance by official Communist support for women’s rights, return in force. Many employers are choosing not to hire women in an economy where there is an oversupply of labor and women are perceived as bringing additional expense in the form of maternity leave and childbirth costs. The law stipulates that employers must help cover those costs, and feminists are seeking a system of state-supported childbirth insurance to lessen discrimination.
有了自由固然是好事儿，随之而来的却是风险。随着社会主义时代的社会结构遭到重击，尽管国家对女性权力大加支持，重男轻女这个强有力的文化传统却卷土重来。在中国劳动力过剩的经济情势下，很多招聘单位不愿雇佣女性。他们认为由于产假和生育等原因，女性员工会带来额外的开销。法律规定，用人单位必须支付该类费用；而女权主义者正在寻求建立一个国家买单的生育保险体系以减轻雇佣关系中的性别歧视。
The result is that even highly qualified candidates like Ms. Feng can struggle to find a footing. Practical concerns about coping in a highly competitive world are feeding into a powerful identity crisis among China’s women.
结果是像冯小姐这样的高素质人才都很难找到立足之地。对成功应付竞争激烈社会的担忧正逐步渗透到中国女性严重的身份危机中。
“The main issue we face is confusion, about who we are and what we should be,” said Qin Liwen, a magazine columnist. “Should I be a ‘strong woman’ and make money and have a career, maybe grow rich, but risk not finding a husband or having a child? Or should I marry and be a stay-at-home housewife, support my husband and educate my child? Or, should I be a ‘fox’ — the kind of woman who marries a rich man, drives around in a BMW but has to put up with his concubines?”
杂志专栏作家秦丽雯（音）说：“我们目前面对的最大问题是关于我们到底是谁以及我们该做什么样的人的困惑。我是不是应该做个女强人，会赚钱、有自己的事业，说不定变成小富婆，但代价就是可能找不到老公或是生不了孩子？或者说，我是不是该结婚然后做全职太太，相夫教子？或者干脆去傍个大款，开着宝马车但是得接受老公在外面彩旗飘飘？”
Ms. Feng found a job at a company that promoted Chinese brands.
“It was a really bad place,” she said. Employees were fired immediately after promotional drives to slash costs. Working hours were long. A colleague who suffered a late miscarriage was ordered back to work within three days. Ms. Feng’s monthly salary was 5,000 renminbi, or about $745, without benefits.
In July, she quit — for the security of a “semi-state” organization run by the Ministry of Education.
冯小姐后来在一家中国品牌推广公司找到了工作。但是她说那个地方非常糟糕。推广活动一结束，公司就会为削减开销而裁员；工作时间过长；一个不幸流产的同事被要求三天内回来上班。冯小姐月薪5000，没有任何福利。她七月份辞职了，找到了一份由教育部运营的半国有机构内的稳定工作。
The pay is lower, about $625 a month, but lunch in the ministry canteen is free, and she gets benefits that hark back to socialist days, including a housing allowance. Hours are fixed, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., five days a week. Most important, her employer, the China Education Association for International Exchange, does not object to employees’ having babies and provides at least 90 days’ maternity leave at full pay.
这份工作薪水更低，每月4000多一点，但是提供免费午餐还有其它福利，包括住房补贴，算是又回到社会主义大时代了。这份工作工作时间固定，每周五天，每天上午8:30上班、下午5:00下班。最重要的是，她目前供职的中国教育国际交流协会没有命令反对生育，而且提供至少三个月的带薪产假。
The job may be “a bit boring,” but for now, she, like others, has made her choice.
“The state sector is quite popular with women because their rights are better protected there,” said Feng Yuan, head of the Center for Women’s Studies at Shantou University.
冯小姐说这份工作虽然‘有点单调’，但是跟其他人一样，她已经做出了选择。汕头大学妇女研究中心负责人冯媛说：“国有企业很受女性欢迎，因为她们的权益得在那里得到更好的保护。”
Guo Jianmei, director of the Beijing Zhongze Women’s Legal Counseling and Service Center, insists that, over all, women today are in a better position than they were three decades ago.
“They know so much more about their rights,” she said. “They are better educated. For those with a competitive spirit, there’s a world of opportunity here now, whether they are businesswomen, scientists, farmers or even political leaders. There really have been huge changes.”
众泽妇女法律咨询服务中心主任郭建梅认为，总体来说，当代女性的处境要比30年前好得多。她说：“她们更了解自己的权益，受到更好的教育。不管是商人、科学家、农民抑或是政治领袖，对于那些有竞争意识的女性来说，这个世界充满了机会。这方面的确有很大的变化。”
Women’s rights are well protected, at least on paper. In 2005, the government amended the landmark 1992 Law on the Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests, known as the Women’s Constitution, to make gender equality an explicit state policy. It also outlawed, for the first time, sexual harassment.
女性权益受到了良好保护，至少在书面上是这样。2005年，政府修定1992年颁布的具有里程碑意义的《妇女权益保障法》，至此性别平等明确成为基本国策，并首次将性骚扰纳入违法行为之列。
Yet gender discrimination is widespread. Only a few women dare to sue employers for unfair hiring practices, dismissal on grounds of pregnancy or maternity leave, or sexual harassment, experts say. Employers commonly specify gender, age and physical appearance in job offers.
然而，性别歧视随处可见。专家说，仅有为数不多的几名女性敢以不正当雇用行为、因怀孕或产假遭解雇或性骚扰等理由与用人单位对簿公堂。用人单位在发布招聘信息是通常会指明性别、年龄和外貌等要求。
There are gaps in the law. A major problem, said Feng Yuan (not related to Angel Feng), is that it does not define gender discrimination. The law also sticks to the longstanding requirement that women retire five years earlier than men at the same jobs, thereby reducing earnings and pensions.
法律本身就有漏洞。冯媛教授说，其中最主要的问题是法律没有对性别歧视作出严格定义。法律还坚持同种工作女性比男性早五年退休的长期做法，因此减少了女性的工资收入和退休金。
In 2008, 67.5 percent of Chinese women over 15 were employed, according to Yang Juhua of Renmin University of China’s Center for Population and Development Studies, citing World Bank statistics. That was a drop from the most recent Chinese government data, from 2000, showing that 71.52 percent of women from 16 through 54 were employed, compared with 82.47 percent of men from 16 through 59. Ms. Yang has calculated that women earn 63.5 percent of men’s salaries, a drop from 64.8 in 2000.
2008年，67.5%的15岁以上中国女性有工作——中国人民大学人口与发展研究所的杨菊华援引世界银行的数据如是说。而中国政府于2000年的数据显示16至54岁的女性中71.52%的人有工作，而16至59岁的男性中，82.47%的人有工作。根据杨菊华的计算，女性收入仅为男性的63.5%，比2000年的数据64.8%又有所下降。
And yet there are many stories of individual success, built on hard work — and some luck. Shi Zaihong’s is one.
Born into a poor rural family in the central province of Anhui, Ms. Shi, now 41, came to Beijing to work as a nanny in 1987. She earned 40 renminbi a month.
当然，也有不少通过自己辛勤工作而取得成功的个案，这其中当然也需要点运气。石再红（音）就是其中之一。现年41岁的石女士来自安徽省的一个贫苦的农村家庭。1987年来到北京开始做保姆，那时候一个月挣40块。
Today, she works 10 cleaning and child-minding jobs, earning 7,000 renminbi a month. With her husband, who runs a small business putting up advertisements, she bought an apartment just outside Beijing for 500,000 renminbi — an astonishing achievement for a migrant worker with just five years’ education.
现在，她同时做着十份打扫和照看孩子的工作，每个月能赚7000块。她的老公经营着一个做广告牌的小生意。两人花了50万在北京近郊买了一套房子，这对一个仅有小学文化程度的外地务工人员来说绝对是惊人的成就。
Ms. Shi’s eyes shine as she talks about her steady accumulation of wealth, far outstripping what her mother was able to save in farming. “I have taken advantage of every opportunity that I had, and I have always worked hard,” she said. “Things are good. Very good.”
说起自己稳定的积蓄，石（音）女士眼睛里闪烁着光芒。那比她的母亲种地能攒的钱不知多出多少倍。她说：“我会好好把握每个机会而且一直勤勤恳恳工作。现在日子过得不错。”
The mother of a 16-year-old son and a 3-year-old daughter, she can now apply for her children to legally join her because buying property confers this right, she said. The children have always lived in her mountain village of 300, with her parents. “Having to leave your children behind is the hardest thing about being a migrant,” she said.
因为在北京购买了房产，石女士现在可以申请让16岁的孩子和3岁的女儿到北京居住。两个孩子此前一直跟外祖父母生活在偏远山区。石女士说：“在外面打工，最难过的就是和孩子分开。”
Liu Yan, 42, comes from quite a different background. The daughter of an actor and an opera singer from Sichuan Province in the southwest, she worked at China’s first private tour operator and is now a successful business consultant. Sophisticated and well connected, she specializes in putting people together to make a project “go.” She is divorced, with a 10-year-old daughter.
42岁的刘彦（音）的背景则大不相同。她的父母是四川的文艺界人士，她曾供职于中国首家私营旅行社，现在是一名成功的商业咨询师。刘女士成熟稳重、交际面广，专长是集合人才运行各种项目。离异的刘女士有一个十岁的女儿。
“I’ve been quite free and straightforward all my life,” she said. But “my family often calls me stupid for it. It’s not really the way you’re supposed to act here.” The upshot is that she feels her prospects of remarriage are dim.
“Tradition has come back strongly, but it’s not always a good thing,” she said. “With Chinese men, there is a line you cannot cross. They have ‘face’ that you have to respect. Anyway, most of them don’t find me feminine. They like young girls. They think a woman is beautiful when she’s ‘sweet.”’
她说：“我这辈子都活得很自由，为人处事不拐弯抹角。但是家里人总说我傻。直接并不是这个社会接受的行为方式。”刘女士觉得她再婚的可能性微乎其微。
China’s more well-to-do women, she said, are expected to tolerate a husband’s multiple mistresses. Concubinage, outlawed by the Communists after they took power in 1949, has re-emerged.
“Most women just assume that sooner or later it will happen,” she said. “Men have power. Women are weak, and they have too much to lose. But I want to be happy. I could not accept that.”
她还说，在中国，生活优越的女性要容忍丈夫在外面扎花惹草已经是大家心照不宣的事情了。1949年新中国成立后被认定为非法行为的妾侍制度仿佛又死灰复燃了。“大部分女性觉得老公在外沾花惹草迟早会发生的。男人是强势的。而女人就比较弱势，她们失去的太多了。但是我想活得开心点，那些是我不能接受的。”刘女士说。
2010年11月21日星期日
你爸是李刚，你们全家的爸都是李刚！
China’s Censorship Backfires in ‘Li Gang’ Case
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/18/world/asia/18li.html
BAODING, China — One night in late October, a college student named Chen Xiaofeng was in-line skating with a friend on the grounds of Hebei University in central China. They were gliding past the campus grocery when a Volkswagen sedan raced down a narrow lane and struck them head-on.
十月下旬的一个晚上，河北大学学生陈晓凤和朋友一起在校园里玩轮滑。正当她们滑过校园超市时，一辆大众轿车冲到路边便道迎面撞上了她们。
The impact sent Ms. Chen flying and broke the other woman’s leg. The 22-year-old driver, who was intoxicated, tried to speed away. Security guards intercepted him, but he was undeterred. He warned them, “My father is Li Gang!”
陈晓凤被撞飞，另一名女生腿被撞断。事发后，22岁的酒后驾车的肇事者企图开车逃逸。学校保安将其拦住，但肇事者冷漠嚣张，还大喊：“我爸是李刚！”
“The two girls were motionless,” one passer-by that night, a student who identified himself only by his surname, Duan, said this week. “There was a small pool of blood.” The next day, Ms. Chen was dead.
本周，当晚事件目击者、河北大学一名姓段的学生说：“（当时）两个女孩儿都躺在那儿不动了。地上有一滩血。”事发第二天，陈晓凤身亡。
Chen Xiaofeng was a poor farm girl. The man accused of killing her, Li Qiming, is the son of Li Gang, the deputy police chief in the Beishi district of Baoding. The tale of her death is precisely the sort of gripping socio-drama — a commoner grievously wronged; a privileged transgressor pulling strings to escape punishment — that sets off alarm bells in the offices of Communist Party censors. And in fact, party propaganda officials moved swiftly after the accident to ensure that the story never gained traction.
陈晓凤是个普通的农村女孩儿，而涉嫌酒后驾车撞人致死的李启铭是河北保定市北市区公安分局副局长李刚。陈晓凤的死完全就是一出扣人心弦的社会戏剧（socio-drama）——一边是受到不公的平民；一边是享受特权的企图利用关系逃脱法律制裁的犯法者。这出戏剧给共产党的审查机构敲响了警钟。事实上，宣传部官员已在事发后第一时间采取措施以确保这则消息不会带来太大的负面效应。（gain traction）
Curiously, however, the opposite has happened. A month after the accident, much of China knows the story, and “My father is Li Gang” has become a bitter inside joke, a catchphrase for shirking any responsibility — washing the dishes, being faithful to a girlfriend — with impunity. Even the government’s heavy-handed effort to control the story has become the object of scorn among younger, savvier Chinese.
然而，说起来也怪，事实恰恰相反。事故发生一个月之后，大半个中国都知道了这件事儿，而‘我爸是李刚’已经成了一个大家都能意会的笑话，也是成了逃脱诸如洗碗、忠诚于女友等责任并免受处罚的一句口头禅。而政府控制消息传播的企图(heavy-handed?)也成了年轻、明理的中国人嘲讽的对象。
“There was a little on the school news channel at first,” one Hebei University student who offered only his surname, Wang, said in an interview last week. “But then it went completely quiet. We’re really disappointed in the press for stopping coverage of this major news.”
河北大学一名姓王（汪）的学生上周接受采访时说：“开始的时候学校新闻频道有一点相关报道。但是后来全部失声了。对于媒体关于这样的大新闻集体失声，我们感到非常失望。”
In many ways, the Li Gang case, as it is known, exemplifies how China’s propaganda machine — able to slant or kill any news in the age of printing presses and television — is sometimes hamstrung in the age of the Internet, especially when it tries to manipulate a pithy narrative about the abuse of power.
众所周知，中国的宣传机器能在这个平面和电视媒体时代歪曲报道或是审查掉一些新闻，而李刚事件从许多方面来讲都是中国的宣传机器在网络时代如何被‘阉割’的典型，尤其是在它试图操控权利滥用的有力报道的时候。
“Frequently we’ll see directives on coverage, but those directives don’t necessarily mean there is no coverage,” said David Bandurski, an analyst at the University of Hong Kong’s China Media Project. “They’re not all that effective.”
“Censorship is increasingly unpopular in China,” he added. “We know how unpopular it is, because they have to keep the guidelines themselves under wraps.”
香港大学中国传媒研究项目的分析师David Bandurski说：“我们常常能看到有关新闻报道范围的指示，但是这些指示并不一定说明就不会有相关报道。审查制度在中国越来越不得人心。我们知道它到底有多不得人心，因为有关部门的所谓指导方针也见不得光。”
A gadfly blog, sarcastically titled Ministry of Truth, has begun to puncture the veil surrounding censorship, anonymously posting secret government directives leaked by free-speech sympathizers. According to the blog’s sources, the Central Propaganda Department issued a directive on Oct. 28, 10 days after the accident, “ensuring there is no more hype regarding the disturbance over traffic at Hebei University.”
一个讽刺地命名为‘真理部’的草根博客（gadfly blog）已经着手掀开审查制度的面纱。博客上匿名发表了言论自由支持者透露的政府机密指示。根据博客的消息来源，中共中央宣传部于车祸发生10天后，即10月28日，发布了一份指示：确保不再出现关于河北大学交通骚乱的大肆报道。
On that same day, censors prohibited reporting on six other incidents. One involved another girl’s death in police custody. Others included an investigation of a Hunan Province security official, the sexual dalliance of a Maoming vice mayor, the abandonment of closed pavilions at Shanghai’s World Expo and the increasing censorship of Internet chat rooms.
同一天，审查机构又禁止报道其它六个事件。其中一个有关另一个女孩儿在警方监禁期间死亡。其它还包括对湖南省一名安全系统官员的调查，茂名副市长玩弄女记者事件，上海世博会闭幕后场馆的遗弃，以及网上聊天室内日益增强的审查监控。
But the Li Gang case was hard to suppress, partly because it personified an enduring grievance: the belief that the powerful can flout the rules to which ordinary folk are forced to submit. Increasingly, that grievance focuses on what Chinese mockingly call the “guan er dai” and “fu er dai” — the “second generation,” children of privileged government officials and the super-rich.
然而，李刚事件难以压制，部分原因是这一事件使人们长期以来对‘只许州官放火不许百姓点灯’的不满具体化。这种不满越来越集中在‘官二代’和‘富二代’身上——享尽特权的政府官员和有钱人的孩子。
Realizing the delicacy of the matter, the government tried to shape public reaction in more ways than by simply restricting coverage. After Internet bulletin boards began buzzing with outrage, China’s national television network, CCTV, broadcast an Oct. 22 interview with Li Gang and his son, filled with effusive apologies for the accident. On Oct. 24, the news media reported that Li Qiming, who had been detained by the police the day after the accident, had been arrested.
意识到这一事件的微妙，政府除了严控新闻报道之外还采取了其它多种措施来引导公众对此事件的反应。网民纷纷在网络上表达愤怒之后，中国国家电视台——中央电视台于10月22号播出了一段对李刚和李启铭的采访，两人在采访中流露出深深的忏悔。10月24日，新闻媒体报道，事发后第二天已被拘留的肇事者李启铭已经被逮捕。
Police regulations ostensibly bar interviews with detainees. A Baoding police spokeswoman who identified herself as Ms. Zhou said in an e-mail that the network obtained the interview because it had been approved by the local party propaganda office.
警方表面上规定，被羁留人员严禁接受采访。保定警方的一位发言人周女士在邮件中说中央电视台之所以得以采访李启铭是因为获得了中宣部当地办事处的批准。
Ms. Chen’s survivors were not afforded the same access. In early November, Fenghuang Satellite Television, a news channel based in Hong Kong that is available to some in mainland China, broadcast an angry interview with Ms. Chen’s brother, Chen Lin. On Nov. 4, the Central Propaganda Department banned further news of the interview.
而陈晓凤的家人却没有同等的访问权限。11月初，香港凤凰台（在中国大陆，一部分人可以看到凤凰台的节目）播出了一段陈晓凤的哥哥陈林愤怒的采访画面。11月4号，中宣部下令禁止有关该采访的进一步报道。
But censorship officials were seeking to control a message that had already spread widely.
On Oct. 20, a female blogger in northern China nicknamed Piggy Feet Beta announced a contest to incorporate the phrase “Li Gang is my father” into classical Chinese poetry. Six thousand applicants replied, one modifying a famous poem by Mao to read “it’s all in the past, talk about heroes, my father is Li Gang.”
事实上，新闻审查官员是在企图控制一条已经广泛传播的消息。10月20日，华北一名网名为Piggy Feet Beta的网友发起了一项‘我爸是李刚’诗歌大赛，约6000名网友进行了回复。其中一名网友改编了毛泽东的一首词：俱往矣，数风流人物，我爸是李刚。
Copycat competitions, using ad slogans and song lyrics, sprang up elsewhere on the Internet. In the southern metropolis of Chongqing, an artist created an installation based on the phrase.
类似的使用广告语和歌词比赛在网络上层出不穷。在中国西南部城市重庆，一位艺术家根据这个流行语创作了an installation?
On Nov. 9, Internet chatter on the case abruptly withered. But some have continued to dodge Web censors: starting in early November, the Beijing artist and activist Ai Weiwei posted on his Web site an interview with Ms. Chen’s father and brother, who said he had rejected appeals to negotiate a settlement.
“In society they say everyone is equal, but in every corner there is inequality,” Chen Lin said.
“How can you live in this country and this society without any worry?” he added.
11月9日，网络上有关这一事件的讨论突然销声匿迹了。但仍有一部分躲开了新闻审查的进攻。11月初，艺术家和政治积极分子艾未未在自己的网页上发布了对陈晓凤父亲和哥哥的采访。陈晓凤的哥哥表示他们已经拒绝了私下和解的请求。
Censors repeatedly blocked the interview. Mr. Ai has played a cat-and-mouse game, moving it to a new Web site every time.
Finally, last Thursday, the Chens’ lawyer, Zhang Kai, received a telephone call from his clients. “They thanked me for all the efforts I put into this case,” he said, “but they told me they have resolved their dispute with Li Gang’s family. Half an hour after the call, they came to my office and handed in a termination contract. And after that, they just disappeared.”
新闻审查部门不厌其烦地封杀这段采访。而艾未未则玩儿起了猫捉老鼠的游戏，每次都把这段录像搬到不同的网页上。最终，陈家的代理律师张凯于上周四接到了其客户的电话。张律师说：“他们感谢我为这个案子所作的一切努力，但是告诉我他们的事情已经解决了。半个小时后，他们到律师事务所解除了合同。”
Mr. Zhang said many of his cases involving conflicts between ordinary citizens and powerful people had ended the same way. “In current Chinese society, people put an emphasis on power more than on individual liberty,” he said.
If the settlement was intended to quash chatter about the Li Gang case, it, too, seems to have accomplished the opposite.
张律师说，这类普通公民和有权势的人之间的纷争大多都以这种类似的方式收场。他说：“当今中国社会中，人们把权力看得比个人自由看得更重。”
In Baoding, Hebei students questioned at random this week uniformly denounced the handling of the Chen case. “I’d see the case to the end,” said one man who gave only his surname, Zhang. “Go through the legal process and seek justice.”
A second student, Zhao, was unsparing. “This is the kind of society we live in,” he said angrily. “People who have power, they can cover up the sky. We want this settled according to the law.”
在河北保定，记者本周随机采访的学生一致谴责对陈晓凤案件的处理。一位张姓同学说：“我想看看这起案件的最终结果。应该走法律程序，伸张正义。”另一位姓赵的学生言辞激烈地说：“这就是我们生活的社会，有权有势的人能一手遮天。我们希望这起案子能通过正当的法律途径解决。”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/18/world/asia/18li.html
BAODING, China — One night in late October, a college student named Chen Xiaofeng was in-line skating with a friend on the grounds of Hebei University in central China. They were gliding past the campus grocery when a Volkswagen sedan raced down a narrow lane and struck them head-on.
十月下旬的一个晚上，河北大学学生陈晓凤和朋友一起在校园里玩轮滑。正当她们滑过校园超市时，一辆大众轿车冲到路边便道迎面撞上了她们。
The impact sent Ms. Chen flying and broke the other woman’s leg. The 22-year-old driver, who was intoxicated, tried to speed away. Security guards intercepted him, but he was undeterred. He warned them, “My father is Li Gang!”
陈晓凤被撞飞，另一名女生腿被撞断。事发后，22岁的酒后驾车的肇事者企图开车逃逸。学校保安将其拦住，但肇事者冷漠嚣张，还大喊：“我爸是李刚！”
“The two girls were motionless,” one passer-by that night, a student who identified himself only by his surname, Duan, said this week. “There was a small pool of blood.” The next day, Ms. Chen was dead.
本周，当晚事件目击者、河北大学一名姓段的学生说：“（当时）两个女孩儿都躺在那儿不动了。地上有一滩血。”事发第二天，陈晓凤身亡。
Chen Xiaofeng was a poor farm girl. The man accused of killing her, Li Qiming, is the son of Li Gang, the deputy police chief in the Beishi district of Baoding. The tale of her death is precisely the sort of gripping socio-drama — a commoner grievously wronged; a privileged transgressor pulling strings to escape punishment — that sets off alarm bells in the offices of Communist Party censors. And in fact, party propaganda officials moved swiftly after the accident to ensure that the story never gained traction.
陈晓凤是个普通的农村女孩儿，而涉嫌酒后驾车撞人致死的李启铭是河北保定市北市区公安分局副局长李刚。陈晓凤的死完全就是一出扣人心弦的社会戏剧（socio-drama）——一边是受到不公的平民；一边是享受特权的企图利用关系逃脱法律制裁的犯法者。这出戏剧给共产党的审查机构敲响了警钟。事实上，宣传部官员已在事发后第一时间采取措施以确保这则消息不会带来太大的负面效应。（gain traction）
Curiously, however, the opposite has happened. A month after the accident, much of China knows the story, and “My father is Li Gang” has become a bitter inside joke, a catchphrase for shirking any responsibility — washing the dishes, being faithful to a girlfriend — with impunity. Even the government’s heavy-handed effort to control the story has become the object of scorn among younger, savvier Chinese.
然而，说起来也怪，事实恰恰相反。事故发生一个月之后，大半个中国都知道了这件事儿，而‘我爸是李刚’已经成了一个大家都能意会的笑话，也是成了逃脱诸如洗碗、忠诚于女友等责任并免受处罚的一句口头禅。而政府控制消息传播的企图(heavy-handed?)也成了年轻、明理的中国人嘲讽的对象。
“There was a little on the school news channel at first,” one Hebei University student who offered only his surname, Wang, said in an interview last week. “But then it went completely quiet. We’re really disappointed in the press for stopping coverage of this major news.”
河北大学一名姓王（汪）的学生上周接受采访时说：“开始的时候学校新闻频道有一点相关报道。但是后来全部失声了。对于媒体关于这样的大新闻集体失声，我们感到非常失望。”
In many ways, the Li Gang case, as it is known, exemplifies how China’s propaganda machine — able to slant or kill any news in the age of printing presses and television — is sometimes hamstrung in the age of the Internet, especially when it tries to manipulate a pithy narrative about the abuse of power.
众所周知，中国的宣传机器能在这个平面和电视媒体时代歪曲报道或是审查掉一些新闻，而李刚事件从许多方面来讲都是中国的宣传机器在网络时代如何被‘阉割’的典型，尤其是在它试图操控权利滥用的有力报道的时候。
“Frequently we’ll see directives on coverage, but those directives don’t necessarily mean there is no coverage,” said David Bandurski, an analyst at the University of Hong Kong’s China Media Project. “They’re not all that effective.”
“Censorship is increasingly unpopular in China,” he added. “We know how unpopular it is, because they have to keep the guidelines themselves under wraps.”
香港大学中国传媒研究项目的分析师David Bandurski说：“我们常常能看到有关新闻报道范围的指示，但是这些指示并不一定说明就不会有相关报道。审查制度在中国越来越不得人心。我们知道它到底有多不得人心，因为有关部门的所谓指导方针也见不得光。”
A gadfly blog, sarcastically titled Ministry of Truth, has begun to puncture the veil surrounding censorship, anonymously posting secret government directives leaked by free-speech sympathizers. According to the blog’s sources, the Central Propaganda Department issued a directive on Oct. 28, 10 days after the accident, “ensuring there is no more hype regarding the disturbance over traffic at Hebei University.”
一个讽刺地命名为‘真理部’的草根博客（gadfly blog）已经着手掀开审查制度的面纱。博客上匿名发表了言论自由支持者透露的政府机密指示。根据博客的消息来源，中共中央宣传部于车祸发生10天后，即10月28日，发布了一份指示：确保不再出现关于河北大学交通骚乱的大肆报道。
On that same day, censors prohibited reporting on six other incidents. One involved another girl’s death in police custody. Others included an investigation of a Hunan Province security official, the sexual dalliance of a Maoming vice mayor, the abandonment of closed pavilions at Shanghai’s World Expo and the increasing censorship of Internet chat rooms.
同一天，审查机构又禁止报道其它六个事件。其中一个有关另一个女孩儿在警方监禁期间死亡。其它还包括对湖南省一名安全系统官员的调查，茂名副市长玩弄女记者事件，上海世博会闭幕后场馆的遗弃，以及网上聊天室内日益增强的审查监控。
But the Li Gang case was hard to suppress, partly because it personified an enduring grievance: the belief that the powerful can flout the rules to which ordinary folk are forced to submit. Increasingly, that grievance focuses on what Chinese mockingly call the “guan er dai” and “fu er dai” — the “second generation,” children of privileged government officials and the super-rich.
然而，李刚事件难以压制，部分原因是这一事件使人们长期以来对‘只许州官放火不许百姓点灯’的不满具体化。这种不满越来越集中在‘官二代’和‘富二代’身上——享尽特权的政府官员和有钱人的孩子。
Realizing the delicacy of the matter, the government tried to shape public reaction in more ways than by simply restricting coverage. After Internet bulletin boards began buzzing with outrage, China’s national television network, CCTV, broadcast an Oct. 22 interview with Li Gang and his son, filled with effusive apologies for the accident. On Oct. 24, the news media reported that Li Qiming, who had been detained by the police the day after the accident, had been arrested.
意识到这一事件的微妙，政府除了严控新闻报道之外还采取了其它多种措施来引导公众对此事件的反应。网民纷纷在网络上表达愤怒之后，中国国家电视台——中央电视台于10月22号播出了一段对李刚和李启铭的采访，两人在采访中流露出深深的忏悔。10月24日，新闻媒体报道，事发后第二天已被拘留的肇事者李启铭已经被逮捕。
Police regulations ostensibly bar interviews with detainees. A Baoding police spokeswoman who identified herself as Ms. Zhou said in an e-mail that the network obtained the interview because it had been approved by the local party propaganda office.
警方表面上规定，被羁留人员严禁接受采访。保定警方的一位发言人周女士在邮件中说中央电视台之所以得以采访李启铭是因为获得了中宣部当地办事处的批准。
Ms. Chen’s survivors were not afforded the same access. In early November, Fenghuang Satellite Television, a news channel based in Hong Kong that is available to some in mainland China, broadcast an angry interview with Ms. Chen’s brother, Chen Lin. On Nov. 4, the Central Propaganda Department banned further news of the interview.
而陈晓凤的家人却没有同等的访问权限。11月初，香港凤凰台（在中国大陆，一部分人可以看到凤凰台的节目）播出了一段陈晓凤的哥哥陈林愤怒的采访画面。11月4号，中宣部下令禁止有关该采访的进一步报道。
But censorship officials were seeking to control a message that had already spread widely.
On Oct. 20, a female blogger in northern China nicknamed Piggy Feet Beta announced a contest to incorporate the phrase “Li Gang is my father” into classical Chinese poetry. Six thousand applicants replied, one modifying a famous poem by Mao to read “it’s all in the past, talk about heroes, my father is Li Gang.”
事实上，新闻审查官员是在企图控制一条已经广泛传播的消息。10月20日，华北一名网名为Piggy Feet Beta的网友发起了一项‘我爸是李刚’诗歌大赛，约6000名网友进行了回复。其中一名网友改编了毛泽东的一首词：俱往矣，数风流人物，我爸是李刚。
Copycat competitions, using ad slogans and song lyrics, sprang up elsewhere on the Internet. In the southern metropolis of Chongqing, an artist created an installation based on the phrase.
类似的使用广告语和歌词比赛在网络上层出不穷。在中国西南部城市重庆，一位艺术家根据这个流行语创作了an installation?
On Nov. 9, Internet chatter on the case abruptly withered. But some have continued to dodge Web censors: starting in early November, the Beijing artist and activist Ai Weiwei posted on his Web site an interview with Ms. Chen’s father and brother, who said he had rejected appeals to negotiate a settlement.
“In society they say everyone is equal, but in every corner there is inequality,” Chen Lin said.
“How can you live in this country and this society without any worry?” he added.
11月9日，网络上有关这一事件的讨论突然销声匿迹了。但仍有一部分躲开了新闻审查的进攻。11月初，艺术家和政治积极分子艾未未在自己的网页上发布了对陈晓凤父亲和哥哥的采访。陈晓凤的哥哥表示他们已经拒绝了私下和解的请求。
Censors repeatedly blocked the interview. Mr. Ai has played a cat-and-mouse game, moving it to a new Web site every time.
Finally, last Thursday, the Chens’ lawyer, Zhang Kai, received a telephone call from his clients. “They thanked me for all the efforts I put into this case,” he said, “but they told me they have resolved their dispute with Li Gang’s family. Half an hour after the call, they came to my office and handed in a termination contract. And after that, they just disappeared.”
新闻审查部门不厌其烦地封杀这段采访。而艾未未则玩儿起了猫捉老鼠的游戏，每次都把这段录像搬到不同的网页上。最终，陈家的代理律师张凯于上周四接到了其客户的电话。张律师说：“他们感谢我为这个案子所作的一切努力，但是告诉我他们的事情已经解决了。半个小时后，他们到律师事务所解除了合同。”
Mr. Zhang said many of his cases involving conflicts between ordinary citizens and powerful people had ended the same way. “In current Chinese society, people put an emphasis on power more than on individual liberty,” he said.
If the settlement was intended to quash chatter about the Li Gang case, it, too, seems to have accomplished the opposite.
张律师说，这类普通公民和有权势的人之间的纷争大多都以这种类似的方式收场。他说：“当今中国社会中，人们把权力看得比个人自由看得更重。”
In Baoding, Hebei students questioned at random this week uniformly denounced the handling of the Chen case. “I’d see the case to the end,” said one man who gave only his surname, Zhang. “Go through the legal process and seek justice.”
A second student, Zhao, was unsparing. “This is the kind of society we live in,” he said angrily. “People who have power, they can cover up the sky. We want this settled according to the law.”
在河北保定，记者本周随机采访的学生一致谴责对陈晓凤案件的处理。一位张姓同学说：“我想看看这起案件的最终结果。应该走法律程序，伸张正义。”另一位姓赵的学生言辞激烈地说：“这就是我们生活的社会，有权有势的人能一手遮天。我们希望这起案子能通过正当的法律途径解决。”
2010年11月14日星期日
爱情买卖（都怪远远，我想到了这首非常恶俗恶俗的歌名儿）
In China, Money can buy love
BEIJING — Money really can buy you love in China — or at least that seems to be a common belief in this increasingly materialistic country.
在中国，钱真的能买到爱情。至少，在这个逐步物质化的国家，‘金钱买得到爱情’似乎已经成了一种普遍观念。
Many personal stories seem to confirm that the ideal mate is the one who can deliver a home and a car, among other things; sentiment is secondary.
很多人的故事似乎能够证实这一点：理想伴侣一定要有房有车，当然还要有其它东西；感情已经退居其次了。
However widespread this mercantilist spirit, not everyone thinks it is a good thing. A spate of Chinese films, plays and television shows have raised the question: What is love in an age of breakneck economic growth?
不管这种重商思想有多普遍，并非所有人都认为这是件好事儿。中国有一大批电影、戏剧和电视剧提出了这样一个问题：在这个经济极速发展的时代，爱情究竟是什么？
Many Chinese were shocked this year when a female contestant on a popular TV dating show, “If You Are the One,” announced: “I’d rather cry in a BMW than smile on a bicycle.” But others insisted that the contestant, Ma Nuo, now popularly known as “the BMW woman,” was merely expressing a social reality.
今年，一个广受欢迎的电视相亲节目《非诚勿扰》中，一名女嘉宾的一句“宁愿在宝马里哭，也不愿在自行车上笑”着实让很多中国观众大吃一惊。但是很多人相信，被冠以“宝马女”称呼的嘉宾马诺只是表达出了一种社会现实。
Rocketing property prices in recent years have contributed to such feelings, with many people in Beijing and other cities accepting the idea that a woman will pursue a relationship with a man only if he already owns an apartment.
在北京和其它城市的很多人正在逐步接受这样的想法：女人只愿意跟有房的男人谈‘感情’，而近年来飙升的房价已然成了催化剂。
Feng Yuan, a 26-year-old who works in a government education company, tried to set up a friend with a man she thought suitable.
“When she heard he didn’t own an apartment, she refused even to meet him,” recalled Ms. Feng. “She said, ‘What’s the point? Without an apartment, love isn’t possible.”’
26岁的Feng Yuan在一家政府教育机构工作。她曾想把一个女性朋友介绍给一个自己觉得合适的男人。Feng Yuan说：“她听说他没房子的之后，根本见都不愿意见。她说：‘那样有什么意义？没房子，爱情根本没可能。’”
Fueling these attitudes is a drumbeat of fear. After three decades of fast-paced, uneven economic growth, there is enormous anxiety among those who feel they are being left behind, lacking the opportunities and contacts to make big money while all around them others prosper and prices soar.
强烈的恐惧刺激着这种态度。30年的快速、不均衡的经济发展之后，很多人富起来了，物价也飞速上涨，很多人感到在这样的大环境下自己被时代遗忘了、缺少赚大钱的机会和社会关系。
The new creed can be hard, as a 26-year-old cultural events organizer learned.
The man, who asked for anonymity to protect his privacy, earns about 4,000 renminbi, or $600, a month, making even a modest apartment in an unfashionable district of Beijing unaffordable. These homes can cost about $3,000 per square meter, or about $280 per square foot. Housing inflation is severe. Ten years ago, a similar apartment cost about $345 per square meter.
这种金钱至上的人生信条会很残酷，一名不愿透露姓名的男性受访者深有体会。这名文化活动组织者月收入4000人民币，就算是北京偏远区域的一套普通公寓都负担不起。那样的房子每平米两万以上。中国目前的房屋价格上涨严重。十年前，类似的公寓房大概只要两三千每平米。
Instead, he tried to impress his girlfriend of three years by saving for a year to buy aniPhone 3. The newer iPhone 4 — a hot status symbol — had just gone on sale. But at about $900, that was beyond his means.
The phone was not enough. Last week, she left him, citing pressure from her parents to find a richer mate.
所以他只能用其它办法讨女友欢心。他用攒了一年的钱买了一部iPhone3给交往了三年的女友。象征地位的iPhone4已经开始降价了，但五六千块的价格让他无能无力。一部手机是不够的。上周，女友以来自父母的要找个有钱老公的压力为由跟他分手了。
He is heartbroken, believing, despite all, that his girlfriend truly loved him. “Why else did she live with me for three years?” — albeit in a rented apartment. Yet, he is philosophical, too.
“I understand her situation and the pressure from her family,” he said. “I also understand that her parents want their daughter to find someone who can give her a better life.”
他伤心欲绝，但尽管如此，仍相信女友曾真心爱过他。“不然他为什么跟我一起住了三年？”尽管是在租住的公寓里。但他还能保持冷静：“我理解他的处境和来自家庭的压力。我也能理解她的父母想让自己的女儿找到一个能给她提供更优越生活的伴侣。”
The only way to find love, he said, is to become rich. “The most important thing for me now, is to work and earn a living.” he said. “I need to grow stronger, support myself and my parents, and then my future girlfriend can have a good life.”
他说，得到爱情的唯一途径就是赚钱。“现在，对我来说最重要的事情就是工作和谋生。我得变强大，不仅要自食其力还要供养父母，那样我未来的女朋友就能生活得好一点。”
Such calculations have their critics. The hard-nosed attitude of Ms. Ma, the BMW woman, earned her a gentle reprimand recently from the film director Zhang Yimou. In an interview in The South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong newspaper, he urged young people to re-examine their values.
“I don’t think economic advancement and our yearning for love are mutually exclusive,” he said.
这样的想法也受到了各种批评。‘宝马女’马诺的现实态度受到了著名导演张艺谋温和的指责。在接受香港《南华早报》采访时，张艺谋呼吁年轻人重审自己的价值观。他说：“我认为经济发展和我们对爱情的渴望并不是互相排斥的。”
Mr. Zhang, who turns 59 on Sunday, represents an older generation that remembers the more egalitarian, if also poorer and more politically repressive, Maoist era, before the economic changes that unleashed the scramble for material advancement.
刚满59岁的张艺谋代表了毛泽东时代平等主义背景下更贫穷和政治压抑的一代人。那时，经济变化尚未引起人们对物质的追求。
His latest film, “Under the Hawthorn Tree,” depicts the innocent love between a teacher, Jing Qiu, and a geologist, Lao San. Set in 1975 toward the end of the Cultural Revolution, and without a BMW in sight, the film shows the teacher spending quite a lot of time smiling on her sweetheart’s bicycle. Love is the thing, it concludes.
张艺谋的最新影片《山楂树之恋》讲述了女教师静秋和地质工作者老三之间纯洁的爱情故事。发生在1975年、文革即将结束的背景之下，故事里没有宝马，只有静秋坐在老三的自行车上甜笑。爱令一切无往不胜。
Other productions have joined the debate.
“Fight the Landlord,” a play by Sun Yue that premiered in Shanghai last month, is another ringing defense of love in an age of materialism.
A character known as B, grilled by a potential mother-in-law about her very ordinary income, yells: “Don’t think that because I have nothing to be proud of you can insult and destroy me!”
“I have my dignity and pride,” B says, “and I don’t want to turn love, which I value so much, into something vulgar and pale!”
其它影视作品也纷纷加入这场关于爱情和现实的辩论。
由孙悦改编的话剧《斗地主》上个月在上海首演，这又是这个物欲横流的年代里一场响亮的‘爱情保卫战’。主角B的普通收入被准婆婆诟病，忍不住大喊：“别以为我没什么可骄傲的你就可以随便侮辱我！”B说：“我也有骄傲和自尊。我不愿把自己珍视的爱情变的庸俗、苍白!”
A new film, “Color Me Love,” celebrates the cult of materialism but also comes down, somewhat, on the side of love. Modeled on “The Devil Wears Prada,” and with product placement for Hermès, Versace and Diesel, it follows poor but gorgeous Fei as she arrives in Beijing to intern at a fashion magazine.
另一部影片《爱出色》大肆吹捧了对物质主义的狂热，但也稍稍赞美了下爱情。以影片《时尚女魔头》为蓝本的《爱出色》讲述了美丽窘迫的汪小菲来到北京在一家时尚杂志实习的故事，片中不乏爱马仕、范思哲和迪赛尔的植入广告。
“Fei, one day you’ll understand,” Zoe, her glamorous editor, cautions her. “Nothing is as important as the person you’ll spend the rest of your life with.”
A tumultuous courtship with a wacky artist named Yihong ends up with the couple united in New York. A closing shot shows her in his arms, a diamond on her finger. The real fantasy, perhaps, is love plus money.
杂志社的编辑Zoe提醒她说：“小菲，有一天你会明白，没有什么比能跟你共度余生的那个人还重要。”
在经历了一段轰轰烈烈的爱情纠葛后，小菲和先锋艺术家亦鸿在纽约重逢。小菲依偎在亦鸿怀里，手上闪耀着钻戒的光芒。也许，最终的梦想应该是爱情加财富。
Ms. Feng, who had failed to find a match for her apartmentless friend, said the demands that many Chinese women make on prospective mates reflected weakness, not power. Lower in status, they fear not getting what they want in life, and look to men to provide it.
“Women are very dependent,” she said. “I blame them. Why can’t they work hard and buy a house together with their man? But very few women today think like that.”
上文中提到的没能帮自己没房子的朋友介绍到女友的冯小姐说很多中国女性对未来伴侣的要求体现出的不是力量，而是软弱。由于地位较低，女性害怕得不到她们想要的，只能指望男人来提供一切。
冯小姐说：“现在的女性非常想依赖别人。这都怪她们自己。为什么不能自己努力工作然后跟自己的男人一起买套房子？但是现在很少有女性这么想。”
Few Chinese men do either, reinforcing the rules of the game. For the 26-year-old events organizer, losing his love to money was justifiable.
“We didn’t need to waste time on a relationship that was doomed to vanish,” he said.
其实，也很少有男人这么想，这更强化了游戏规则。对于那位26岁的活动组织人员来说，爱情败给金钱看似合理。他说：“我们没必要在注定要消失的爱情上浪费时间。”
BEIJING — Money really can buy you love in China — or at least that seems to be a common belief in this increasingly materialistic country.
在中国，钱真的能买到爱情。至少，在这个逐步物质化的国家，‘金钱买得到爱情’似乎已经成了一种普遍观念。
Many personal stories seem to confirm that the ideal mate is the one who can deliver a home and a car, among other things; sentiment is secondary.
很多人的故事似乎能够证实这一点：理想伴侣一定要有房有车，当然还要有其它东西；感情已经退居其次了。
However widespread this mercantilist spirit, not everyone thinks it is a good thing. A spate of Chinese films, plays and television shows have raised the question: What is love in an age of breakneck economic growth?
不管这种重商思想有多普遍，并非所有人都认为这是件好事儿。中国有一大批电影、戏剧和电视剧提出了这样一个问题：在这个经济极速发展的时代，爱情究竟是什么？
Many Chinese were shocked this year when a female contestant on a popular TV dating show, “If You Are the One,” announced: “I’d rather cry in a BMW than smile on a bicycle.” But others insisted that the contestant, Ma Nuo, now popularly known as “the BMW woman,” was merely expressing a social reality.
今年，一个广受欢迎的电视相亲节目《非诚勿扰》中，一名女嘉宾的一句“宁愿在宝马里哭，也不愿在自行车上笑”着实让很多中国观众大吃一惊。但是很多人相信，被冠以“宝马女”称呼的嘉宾马诺只是表达出了一种社会现实。
Rocketing property prices in recent years have contributed to such feelings, with many people in Beijing and other cities accepting the idea that a woman will pursue a relationship with a man only if he already owns an apartment.
在北京和其它城市的很多人正在逐步接受这样的想法：女人只愿意跟有房的男人谈‘感情’，而近年来飙升的房价已然成了催化剂。
Feng Yuan, a 26-year-old who works in a government education company, tried to set up a friend with a man she thought suitable.
“When she heard he didn’t own an apartment, she refused even to meet him,” recalled Ms. Feng. “She said, ‘What’s the point? Without an apartment, love isn’t possible.”’
26岁的Feng Yuan在一家政府教育机构工作。她曾想把一个女性朋友介绍给一个自己觉得合适的男人。Feng Yuan说：“她听说他没房子的之后，根本见都不愿意见。她说：‘那样有什么意义？没房子，爱情根本没可能。’”
Fueling these attitudes is a drumbeat of fear. After three decades of fast-paced, uneven economic growth, there is enormous anxiety among those who feel they are being left behind, lacking the opportunities and contacts to make big money while all around them others prosper and prices soar.
强烈的恐惧刺激着这种态度。30年的快速、不均衡的经济发展之后，很多人富起来了，物价也飞速上涨，很多人感到在这样的大环境下自己被时代遗忘了、缺少赚大钱的机会和社会关系。
The new creed can be hard, as a 26-year-old cultural events organizer learned.
The man, who asked for anonymity to protect his privacy, earns about 4,000 renminbi, or $600, a month, making even a modest apartment in an unfashionable district of Beijing unaffordable. These homes can cost about $3,000 per square meter, or about $280 per square foot. Housing inflation is severe. Ten years ago, a similar apartment cost about $345 per square meter.
这种金钱至上的人生信条会很残酷，一名不愿透露姓名的男性受访者深有体会。这名文化活动组织者月收入4000人民币，就算是北京偏远区域的一套普通公寓都负担不起。那样的房子每平米两万以上。中国目前的房屋价格上涨严重。十年前，类似的公寓房大概只要两三千每平米。
Instead, he tried to impress his girlfriend of three years by saving for a year to buy aniPhone 3. The newer iPhone 4 — a hot status symbol — had just gone on sale. But at about $900, that was beyond his means.
The phone was not enough. Last week, she left him, citing pressure from her parents to find a richer mate.
所以他只能用其它办法讨女友欢心。他用攒了一年的钱买了一部iPhone3给交往了三年的女友。象征地位的iPhone4已经开始降价了，但五六千块的价格让他无能无力。一部手机是不够的。上周，女友以来自父母的要找个有钱老公的压力为由跟他分手了。
He is heartbroken, believing, despite all, that his girlfriend truly loved him. “Why else did she live with me for three years?” — albeit in a rented apartment. Yet, he is philosophical, too.
“I understand her situation and the pressure from her family,” he said. “I also understand that her parents want their daughter to find someone who can give her a better life.”
他伤心欲绝，但尽管如此，仍相信女友曾真心爱过他。“不然他为什么跟我一起住了三年？”尽管是在租住的公寓里。但他还能保持冷静：“我理解他的处境和来自家庭的压力。我也能理解她的父母想让自己的女儿找到一个能给她提供更优越生活的伴侣。”
The only way to find love, he said, is to become rich. “The most important thing for me now, is to work and earn a living.” he said. “I need to grow stronger, support myself and my parents, and then my future girlfriend can have a good life.”
他说，得到爱情的唯一途径就是赚钱。“现在，对我来说最重要的事情就是工作和谋生。我得变强大，不仅要自食其力还要供养父母，那样我未来的女朋友就能生活得好一点。”
Such calculations have their critics. The hard-nosed attitude of Ms. Ma, the BMW woman, earned her a gentle reprimand recently from the film director Zhang Yimou. In an interview in The South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong newspaper, he urged young people to re-examine their values.
“I don’t think economic advancement and our yearning for love are mutually exclusive,” he said.
这样的想法也受到了各种批评。‘宝马女’马诺的现实态度受到了著名导演张艺谋温和的指责。在接受香港《南华早报》采访时，张艺谋呼吁年轻人重审自己的价值观。他说：“我认为经济发展和我们对爱情的渴望并不是互相排斥的。”
Mr. Zhang, who turns 59 on Sunday, represents an older generation that remembers the more egalitarian, if also poorer and more politically repressive, Maoist era, before the economic changes that unleashed the scramble for material advancement.
刚满59岁的张艺谋代表了毛泽东时代平等主义背景下更贫穷和政治压抑的一代人。那时，经济变化尚未引起人们对物质的追求。
His latest film, “Under the Hawthorn Tree,” depicts the innocent love between a teacher, Jing Qiu, and a geologist, Lao San. Set in 1975 toward the end of the Cultural Revolution, and without a BMW in sight, the film shows the teacher spending quite a lot of time smiling on her sweetheart’s bicycle. Love is the thing, it concludes.
张艺谋的最新影片《山楂树之恋》讲述了女教师静秋和地质工作者老三之间纯洁的爱情故事。发生在1975年、文革即将结束的背景之下，故事里没有宝马，只有静秋坐在老三的自行车上甜笑。爱令一切无往不胜。
Other productions have joined the debate.
“Fight the Landlord,” a play by Sun Yue that premiered in Shanghai last month, is another ringing defense of love in an age of materialism.
A character known as B, grilled by a potential mother-in-law about her very ordinary income, yells: “Don’t think that because I have nothing to be proud of you can insult and destroy me!”
“I have my dignity and pride,” B says, “and I don’t want to turn love, which I value so much, into something vulgar and pale!”
其它影视作品也纷纷加入这场关于爱情和现实的辩论。
由孙悦改编的话剧《斗地主》上个月在上海首演，这又是这个物欲横流的年代里一场响亮的‘爱情保卫战’。主角B的普通收入被准婆婆诟病，忍不住大喊：“别以为我没什么可骄傲的你就可以随便侮辱我！”B说：“我也有骄傲和自尊。我不愿把自己珍视的爱情变的庸俗、苍白!”
A new film, “Color Me Love,” celebrates the cult of materialism but also comes down, somewhat, on the side of love. Modeled on “The Devil Wears Prada,” and with product placement for Hermès, Versace and Diesel, it follows poor but gorgeous Fei as she arrives in Beijing to intern at a fashion magazine.
另一部影片《爱出色》大肆吹捧了对物质主义的狂热，但也稍稍赞美了下爱情。以影片《时尚女魔头》为蓝本的《爱出色》讲述了美丽窘迫的汪小菲来到北京在一家时尚杂志实习的故事，片中不乏爱马仕、范思哲和迪赛尔的植入广告。
“Fei, one day you’ll understand,” Zoe, her glamorous editor, cautions her. “Nothing is as important as the person you’ll spend the rest of your life with.”
A tumultuous courtship with a wacky artist named Yihong ends up with the couple united in New York. A closing shot shows her in his arms, a diamond on her finger. The real fantasy, perhaps, is love plus money.
杂志社的编辑Zoe提醒她说：“小菲，有一天你会明白，没有什么比能跟你共度余生的那个人还重要。”
在经历了一段轰轰烈烈的爱情纠葛后，小菲和先锋艺术家亦鸿在纽约重逢。小菲依偎在亦鸿怀里，手上闪耀着钻戒的光芒。也许，最终的梦想应该是爱情加财富。
Ms. Feng, who had failed to find a match for her apartmentless friend, said the demands that many Chinese women make on prospective mates reflected weakness, not power. Lower in status, they fear not getting what they want in life, and look to men to provide it.
“Women are very dependent,” she said. “I blame them. Why can’t they work hard and buy a house together with their man? But very few women today think like that.”
上文中提到的没能帮自己没房子的朋友介绍到女友的冯小姐说很多中国女性对未来伴侣的要求体现出的不是力量，而是软弱。由于地位较低，女性害怕得不到她们想要的，只能指望男人来提供一切。
冯小姐说：“现在的女性非常想依赖别人。这都怪她们自己。为什么不能自己努力工作然后跟自己的男人一起买套房子？但是现在很少有女性这么想。”
Few Chinese men do either, reinforcing the rules of the game. For the 26-year-old events organizer, losing his love to money was justifiable.
“We didn’t need to waste time on a relationship that was doomed to vanish,” he said.
其实，也很少有男人这么想，这更强化了游戏规则。对于那位26岁的活动组织人员来说，爱情败给金钱看似合理。他说：“我们没必要在注定要消失的爱情上浪费时间。”
2010年10月10日星期日
crazy girls
Robin: We'll ask the guys. They'll tell you that's not me
(Marshall, Lily, and Robin sit at booth, Marshall looking at picture)
Marshall: That's totally you.
Robin: You guys are totally crazy.
(Ted sits down and sees picture)
Ted: Hey, who drew the picture of Robin?
Robin: It's not me.
Marshall: You're joking, right?
Robin: It's not me.
==================
Your friends can be nuts sometimes.
But they love you.
They used to give you crazy advice.
But they don't any more. They are now grown-ups, have responsibilities and issues, and they have children.
They've stopped the madness.
I miss the time when they were crazy.
(Marshall, Lily, and Robin sit at booth, Marshall looking at picture)
Marshall: That's totally you.
Robin: You guys are totally crazy.
(Ted sits down and sees picture)
Ted: Hey, who drew the picture of Robin?
Robin: It's not me.
Marshall: You're joking, right?
Robin: It's not me.
==================
Your friends can be nuts sometimes.
But they love you.
They used to give you crazy advice.
But they don't any more. They are now grown-ups, have responsibilities and issues, and they have children.
They've stopped the madness.
I miss the time when they were crazy.
2010年8月26日星期四
No Dog Left Behind
The Answer Sheet - Dogs: An unusual guide to school reform
狗狗们给教育改革的启示
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/guest-bloggers/dogs-an-unusual-guide-to-schoo.html#more
By Marion Brady
Driving the country roads of Scotland, Ireland and Wales, I have sometimes been lucky enough to be blocked by sheep being moved from one pasture to another. I say ‘lucky’ because it allows me to watch an impressive performance by a dog – usually a Border Collie.
驱车行驶在苏格兰、爱尔兰和威尔士的乡间小道上，有时会幸运地被从一个牧场被赶往另一个牧场的羊群拦住去路。我说‘幸运’，是因为这让我有机会好好观察一条狗（通常是博德牧羊犬）的精彩表现。
What a show! A single, mid-sized dog herding two or three hundred sheep, keeping them moving in the right direction, rounding up strays, knowing how to intimidate but not cause panic, funneling them all through a gate, and obviously enjoying the challenge.
多么精彩的表现！一条中型犬孤身作战，把两、三百只羊赶在一起，使它们保持正确的前进方向，使掉队的羊跟上大部队，知道如何去威慑又不造成恐慌，让羊儿们依次通过一扇门，显然这牧羊犬还很享受这种挑战。
Why a Border Collie? Why not an Akita or Xoloitzcuintli or another of about 400 breeds listed on the Internet?
Because, among the people for whom herding sheep is serious business, there is general agreement that Border Collies are better at doing what needs to be done than any other dog. They have ‘the knack.’
为什么是博德牧羊犬，为什么不是秋田犬，也不是Xoloitzcuintli犬，或是网上列出的400个犬中的其它任何一种？因为在将放养当成正经事业来做的人之中有一个共识，即博德牧羊犬在做这项工作上比其它任何犬种都强。它们有‘诀窍’。
That knack is so important that those who care most about Border Collies even oppose their being entered in dog shows. That, they say, would lead to the Border Collie being bred to look good, and looking good isn’t the point. Brains, innate ability, performance – that’s the point.
那种特定的诀窍对博德牧羊犬来说非常重要，因此最在乎它们的人甚至反对博德牧羊犬参与狗狗选秀。他们说，那样会导致博得牧羊犬被打扮得花枝招展，而光鲜的外表对它们来说不是重点。头脑、天赋和表现才是重点。
Other breeds are no less impressive in other ways. If you’re lost in a snowstorm in the Alps, you don’t need a Border Collie. You need a big, strong dog with a really good nose, lots of fur, wide feet that don’t sink too deeply into snow, and an unerring sense of direction for returning with help. You need a Saint Bernard.
其它犬种在另外一些方面毫不逊色。如果你迷失在阿尔卑斯山的雪暴中，你所需要的不是博德牧羊犬，而是一条嗅觉极端灵敏、毛发浓密、爪子宽大不易深陷积雪的大型犬，还要有精准的方向感能领着你顺利走出迷茫。你需要一条圣伯纳犬。
If varmints are sneaking into your hen house, killing your chickens, and escaping down holes in a nearby field, you don’t need a Border Collie or a Saint Bernard, you need a Fox Terrier.
如果有狐狸潜入你家鸡窝杀死你的鸡后从附近田里的地道逃走，你不需要博德牧羊犬，也不需要圣伯纳犬，你需要一条猎狐犬。
It isn’t that many different breeds can’t be taught to herd, lead high-altitude rescue efforts, or kill foxes. They can. It’s just that teaching all dogs to do things which one particular breed can do better than any other doesn’t make much sense.
并不是说我们无法训练多种不同的犬去牧羊、去进行高海拔救援或是去猎杀狐狸。它们能被训练成那样。只是训练所有的犬种去做一件某个犬种最擅长的事情并不太合理。
We accept the reasonableness of that argument for dogs. We reject it for kids.
我们接受有关狗的此种论点的合理性，却拒绝承认它在孩子身上的合理性。
The non-educators now running the education show say American kids are lagging ever-farther behind in science and math, and that the consequences of that for America’s economic well-being could be catastrophic.
那些制作教育类节目的非教育工作者声称美国的孩子的科学和数学大拖后腿，而这方面的不足会给美国经济的良性发展造成灾难性的后果。
So, what is this rich, advantaged country of ours doing to try to beat out the competition?
那么，我们这个富有的强势国家用何种策略来击退竞争者呢？
Mainly, we put in place the No Child Left Behind program, now replaced by Race to the Top and theCommon Core State Standards Initiative. If that fact makes you optimistic about the future of education in America, think again about dogs.
大体上来说，我们推出了‘不让一个孩子掉队’(No Child Left Behind)计划，现已被‘力争上游’(Race to the Top)和‘公共课程国家标准倡议’(the Common Core State Standards Initiative)取代。如果这项事实让你对美国教育的未来信心满满，你不妨再想想上文所述的各种犬类。
There are all kinds of things they can do besides herd, rescue, and engage foxes. They can sniff luggage for bombs. Chase felons. Stand guard duty. Retrieve downed game birds. Guide the blind. Detect certain diseases. Locate earthquake survivors. Entertain audiences. Play nice with little kids. Go for help if Little Nell falls down a well.
除了牧羊、救援和猎狐之外，他们还能做其它各种事情。他们能利用敏感的嗅觉发现行李中的爆炸物、能追捕罪犯、能担当保卫工作、能衔回被击中的鸟儿、能为盲人引路、能发现特定疾病、能搜索定位地震幸存者、能娱乐观众、能跟小朋友们玩乐、能在小耐尔落井后及时求救。
So, with No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top as models, let’s set performance standards for these and all other canine capabilities and train all dogs to meet them. All 400 breeds. All skills. Leave No Dog Behind!
这样一来，我们可以以‘不让一个孩子掉队’和‘力争上游’计划为模板，给上述各种能力及犬类的其它能力制定‘工作标准’并训练所有400种犬在所有能力上都达到该标准。不让一条狗掉队！
Two-hundred-pound Mastiffs may have a little trouble with the chase-the-fox-down-the-hole standard, and Chihuahuas will probably have difficulty with the tackle-the-felon-and-pin-him-to-the-ground standard. But, hey, no excuses! Standards are standards! Leave No Dog Behind.
200磅重的獒犬在在地洞中追捕狐狸这项标准上遇到麻烦；吉娃娃在与罪犯对峙并将其制服这项上遭遇困难。但是，别找借口！标准就是标准！不让一条狗掉队！
Think there’s something wrong with a same-standards-and-tests-for-everybody approach to educating? Think a math whiz shouldn’t be held back just because he can’t write a good five-paragraph essay? Think a gifted writer shouldn’t be refused a diploma because she can’t solve a quadratic equation? Think a promising trumpet player shouldn’t be kept out of the school orchestra or pushed out on the street because he can’t remember the date of the Boxer Rebellion?
觉不觉得所有人统一标准、统一考试的教育方式有点不对劲儿？觉不觉得一个数学奇才不该因写不出一篇精彩的文章而无法继续发展？觉不觉得一个有天分的作家不该因解不出二次方程而被拒发学位？觉不觉得一个有前途的小号手不该因记不住义和团事件的日期而被学校管弦乐团拒之门外或是扫地出门？
If you think there’s something fundamentally, dangerously wrong with an educational reform effort that’s actually designed to standardize, designed to ignore human variation, designed to penalize individual differences, designed to produce a generation of clones, photocopy this column.
如果你也认为这个以标准化为目的，忽视人类多样性、不公平对待个体差异、最终将造就一代克隆人的危险的教育改革措施有根本性错误，请把这个专栏影印出来。
If you think it’s stupid to require every kid to read the same books, think the same thoughts, parrot the same answers, make several photocopies. And in the margin at the top of each, write, in longhand, something like, “Please explain why the standards and accountability fad isn’t a criminal waste of brains,” or, “Why are you trashing America’s hope for the future?” or just, “Does this make sense?”
如果你也认为要求每个孩子读同样的书、思考同样的内容还鹦鹉学舌是蠢到极点的政策，那多影印几份。在每份影印件的顶端空白处手写类此内容：“请解释一下为什么这些标准和问责制不是对才能的可耻浪费？”或者“你们为什么要破坏美国未来的希望？”或者就写“这说得过去吗？”。
Send the copies to your senators and representatives before they sell their vote to the publishing and testing corporations intent on getting an ever-bigger slice of that half-trillion dollars a year America spends on educating.
赶在参议员和众议院议员投票准予出版和测试公司分得美国每年投资在教育上的五亿美元中更大一杯羹之前，快把这些影印件寄给他们。
狗狗们给教育改革的启示
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/guest-bloggers/dogs-an-unusual-guide-to-schoo.html#more
By Marion Brady
Driving the country roads of Scotland, Ireland and Wales, I have sometimes been lucky enough to be blocked by sheep being moved from one pasture to another. I say ‘lucky’ because it allows me to watch an impressive performance by a dog – usually a Border Collie.
驱车行驶在苏格兰、爱尔兰和威尔士的乡间小道上，有时会幸运地被从一个牧场被赶往另一个牧场的羊群拦住去路。我说‘幸运’，是因为这让我有机会好好观察一条狗（通常是博德牧羊犬）的精彩表现。
What a show! A single, mid-sized dog herding two or three hundred sheep, keeping them moving in the right direction, rounding up strays, knowing how to intimidate but not cause panic, funneling them all through a gate, and obviously enjoying the challenge.
多么精彩的表现！一条中型犬孤身作战，把两、三百只羊赶在一起，使它们保持正确的前进方向，使掉队的羊跟上大部队，知道如何去威慑又不造成恐慌，让羊儿们依次通过一扇门，显然这牧羊犬还很享受这种挑战。
Why a Border Collie? Why not an Akita or Xoloitzcuintli or another of about 400 breeds listed on the Internet?
Because, among the people for whom herding sheep is serious business, there is general agreement that Border Collies are better at doing what needs to be done than any other dog. They have ‘the knack.’
为什么是博德牧羊犬，为什么不是秋田犬，也不是Xoloitzcuintli犬，或是网上列出的400个犬中的其它任何一种？因为在将放养当成正经事业来做的人之中有一个共识，即博德牧羊犬在做这项工作上比其它任何犬种都强。它们有‘诀窍’。
That knack is so important that those who care most about Border Collies even oppose their being entered in dog shows. That, they say, would lead to the Border Collie being bred to look good, and looking good isn’t the point. Brains, innate ability, performance – that’s the point.
那种特定的诀窍对博德牧羊犬来说非常重要，因此最在乎它们的人甚至反对博德牧羊犬参与狗狗选秀。他们说，那样会导致博得牧羊犬被打扮得花枝招展，而光鲜的外表对它们来说不是重点。头脑、天赋和表现才是重点。
Other breeds are no less impressive in other ways. If you’re lost in a snowstorm in the Alps, you don’t need a Border Collie. You need a big, strong dog with a really good nose, lots of fur, wide feet that don’t sink too deeply into snow, and an unerring sense of direction for returning with help. You need a Saint Bernard.
其它犬种在另外一些方面毫不逊色。如果你迷失在阿尔卑斯山的雪暴中，你所需要的不是博德牧羊犬，而是一条嗅觉极端灵敏、毛发浓密、爪子宽大不易深陷积雪的大型犬，还要有精准的方向感能领着你顺利走出迷茫。你需要一条圣伯纳犬。
If varmints are sneaking into your hen house, killing your chickens, and escaping down holes in a nearby field, you don’t need a Border Collie or a Saint Bernard, you need a Fox Terrier.
如果有狐狸潜入你家鸡窝杀死你的鸡后从附近田里的地道逃走，你不需要博德牧羊犬，也不需要圣伯纳犬，你需要一条猎狐犬。
It isn’t that many different breeds can’t be taught to herd, lead high-altitude rescue efforts, or kill foxes. They can. It’s just that teaching all dogs to do things which one particular breed can do better than any other doesn’t make much sense.
并不是说我们无法训练多种不同的犬去牧羊、去进行高海拔救援或是去猎杀狐狸。它们能被训练成那样。只是训练所有的犬种去做一件某个犬种最擅长的事情并不太合理。
We accept the reasonableness of that argument for dogs. We reject it for kids.
我们接受有关狗的此种论点的合理性，却拒绝承认它在孩子身上的合理性。
The non-educators now running the education show say American kids are lagging ever-farther behind in science and math, and that the consequences of that for America’s economic well-being could be catastrophic.
那些制作教育类节目的非教育工作者声称美国的孩子的科学和数学大拖后腿，而这方面的不足会给美国经济的良性发展造成灾难性的后果。
So, what is this rich, advantaged country of ours doing to try to beat out the competition?
那么，我们这个富有的强势国家用何种策略来击退竞争者呢？
Mainly, we put in place the No Child Left Behind program, now replaced by Race to the Top and theCommon Core State Standards Initiative. If that fact makes you optimistic about the future of education in America, think again about dogs.
大体上来说，我们推出了‘不让一个孩子掉队’(No Child Left Behind)计划，现已被‘力争上游’(Race to the Top)和‘公共课程国家标准倡议’(the Common Core State Standards Initiative)取代。如果这项事实让你对美国教育的未来信心满满，你不妨再想想上文所述的各种犬类。
There are all kinds of things they can do besides herd, rescue, and engage foxes. They can sniff luggage for bombs. Chase felons. Stand guard duty. Retrieve downed game birds. Guide the blind. Detect certain diseases. Locate earthquake survivors. Entertain audiences. Play nice with little kids. Go for help if Little Nell falls down a well.
除了牧羊、救援和猎狐之外，他们还能做其它各种事情。他们能利用敏感的嗅觉发现行李中的爆炸物、能追捕罪犯、能担当保卫工作、能衔回被击中的鸟儿、能为盲人引路、能发现特定疾病、能搜索定位地震幸存者、能娱乐观众、能跟小朋友们玩乐、能在小耐尔落井后及时求救。
So, with No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top as models, let’s set performance standards for these and all other canine capabilities and train all dogs to meet them. All 400 breeds. All skills. Leave No Dog Behind!
这样一来，我们可以以‘不让一个孩子掉队’和‘力争上游’计划为模板，给上述各种能力及犬类的其它能力制定‘工作标准’并训练所有400种犬在所有能力上都达到该标准。不让一条狗掉队！
Two-hundred-pound Mastiffs may have a little trouble with the chase-the-fox-down-the-hole standard, and Chihuahuas will probably have difficulty with the tackle-the-felon-and-pin-him-to-the-ground standard. But, hey, no excuses! Standards are standards! Leave No Dog Behind.
200磅重的獒犬在在地洞中追捕狐狸这项标准上遇到麻烦；吉娃娃在与罪犯对峙并将其制服这项上遭遇困难。但是，别找借口！标准就是标准！不让一条狗掉队！
Think there’s something wrong with a same-standards-and-tests-for-everybody approach to educating? Think a math whiz shouldn’t be held back just because he can’t write a good five-paragraph essay? Think a gifted writer shouldn’t be refused a diploma because she can’t solve a quadratic equation? Think a promising trumpet player shouldn’t be kept out of the school orchestra or pushed out on the street because he can’t remember the date of the Boxer Rebellion?
觉不觉得所有人统一标准、统一考试的教育方式有点不对劲儿？觉不觉得一个数学奇才不该因写不出一篇精彩的文章而无法继续发展？觉不觉得一个有天分的作家不该因解不出二次方程而被拒发学位？觉不觉得一个有前途的小号手不该因记不住义和团事件的日期而被学校管弦乐团拒之门外或是扫地出门？
If you think there’s something fundamentally, dangerously wrong with an educational reform effort that’s actually designed to standardize, designed to ignore human variation, designed to penalize individual differences, designed to produce a generation of clones, photocopy this column.
如果你也认为这个以标准化为目的，忽视人类多样性、不公平对待个体差异、最终将造就一代克隆人的危险的教育改革措施有根本性错误，请把这个专栏影印出来。
If you think it’s stupid to require every kid to read the same books, think the same thoughts, parrot the same answers, make several photocopies. And in the margin at the top of each, write, in longhand, something like, “Please explain why the standards and accountability fad isn’t a criminal waste of brains,” or, “Why are you trashing America’s hope for the future?” or just, “Does this make sense?”
如果你也认为要求每个孩子读同样的书、思考同样的内容还鹦鹉学舌是蠢到极点的政策，那多影印几份。在每份影印件的顶端空白处手写类此内容：“请解释一下为什么这些标准和问责制不是对才能的可耻浪费？”或者“你们为什么要破坏美国未来的希望？”或者就写“这说得过去吗？”。
Send the copies to your senators and representatives before they sell their vote to the publishing and testing corporations intent on getting an ever-bigger slice of that half-trillion dollars a year America spends on educating.
赶在参议员和众议院议员投票准予出版和测试公司分得美国每年投资在教育上的五亿美元中更大一杯羹之前，快把这些影印件寄给他们。
2010年5月20日星期四
stay positive
I'm filled with hope and despair upon my future teaching job-hope that I might be an excellent teacher who is going to spend some quality time and happy time with the students; despair that I might not be the conventional kind of teacher the authorities expect.(I'm just borrowing the structure from Obama's preface to the 2004 edition of Dreams from My Father)
But I haven't started yet, why upset myself over this uncertainty now. Let's see how it goes, it might be a lot of fun. And the good thing is that I always have other options, I guess.
But I haven't started yet, why upset myself over this uncertainty now. Let's see how it goes, it might be a lot of fun. And the good thing is that I always have other options, I guess.
2010年5月18日星期二
China's School Killings and Social Despair-Part 2
两极分化的社会
C. Cindy Fan是加州大学洛杉矶分校社会科学副院长和地理学教授。她著有《行动中的中国》(China on the Move)一书，并发表了大量文章。
3月23日，一所小学门口，早晨校门开启前的10分钟，42岁的郑民生用一把12英寸长的匕首刺死了八名小学生并刺伤了另外五名受害者。据一名目击者说，在被制服前，郑民生曾高喊：他们不让我活，把我逼疯了，我也不让大家活。
在接下来的八周里，中国又出现了另外四起类似袭击案。其中一部分可能是模仿作案，而观察员则强调精神疾病、压力和对一个急剧两极分化社会的怨恨才是这种暴力犯罪的起因。更令人发指的是案中的受害者都是无辜的、没有防御能力的孩子。
案件细节给了我们一些线索。郑民生2009年六月离开在医院的工作，在那之前做了18年外科医生。在美国，一个普通医生能够买得起一所房子并过上舒适的生活。而郑民生则是跟自己80岁的母亲和哥哥一家三口住在一所公寓里，睡在客厅。他的月收入不足2000块，这样的收入水平根本负担不起中国精英幼儿园的学费，也不够买一所公寓。
中国的内科医生群体普遍薪酬不高。自上世纪50年代起几十年的计划经济时期，医疗是由政府运营，而作为计划经济体制的遗留，现如今的大多数医疗实践都是非私人的。
尽管郑民生能养活自己，但他微薄的收入让他成为了婚姻市场上的无力竞争者。他的邻居说，郑民生曾谈过几个女朋友，但没人愿意跟他结婚，因为他没钱而且买不起自己的房子。在中国，拥有或至少租得起一处自己的住所的能力仍然是结婚的前提。
我们可能永远无法了解到底是什么使得郑民生走投无路（他已被判处死刑，并已于四月底执行）。另外四起袭击案的情况可能大不相同，但有一点是一样的，都是中年男性独自作案。
这些事件提供了什么我们还不了解的关于中国社会的信息吗？我深表怀疑。我们知道在中国，贫富差距很大，城市人口密集，生活在社会常模之外（比如单身或离异等）要面对很多压力，男人需要成功的压力很大，而精神疾病（还有很多生理疾病）被当成是一种羞耻。
但是我们还知道普通的中国人的生活要好得多，他们有更多的人身自由、受到更好的教育、更加自信、与外界的接触更广泛，并且比他们的父母和祖父母更长寿。在这种情况下，帮助平均水平以下群体、社会边缘人士和弱势群体必须成为政府以及整个社会的首要任务。
无辜者之死
Guobin Yang是伯纳德学院亚洲和中东文化研究系副教授，著有《中国互联网的力量：公民行动主义在线》。
此类袭击案件的高频率（不足两个月的时间内连发五起）似乎为这些是模仿作案的说法提供了佐证。也有人怀疑凶手有精神疾病。但也有人提到了在一个政府严格限制的社会中缺乏情绪疏导。
个人的作案动机可能不尽相同，但这其中有普遍的潜在诱因。这些袭击事件仅仅是一个日益愠怒和争议倍出的社会最猛烈、最残忍的征兆。还有一些其它征兆：
-公众抗议的数量持续增长（1993年的8700次，2005年87000次），其中大部分指向政府当局。
-针对政府当局的暴力袭击数量持续增长，比如焚烧警车和政府大楼。
-绝望的个人以自焚来抗议强行拆迁和缺少寻求正义的法律途径。
-政府官员猖獗的腐败在网络论坛和博客上不断被披露。
这个列表还可以继续。他们共同的主线正是官方、法律和管理所面临的危机。政府当局背离了法律和正义的管理者的角色，却成为冤屈和绝望的来源和目标。当公民没有合法途径去寻求正义时，暴力就成为了他们的选择。
这些暴力事件还有另一个深层的令人堪忧的元素。袭击者把目标指向了他们自己的共同体中最无辜也最受珍爱的成员。共同体常被看做是危机时期的缓冲器（如战争时期）。通过背叛自己的共同体，这些袭击者揭露了该共同体中重大危机，而这个共同体长期以来一直是中国社会稳定的根源。
C. Cindy Fan是加州大学洛杉矶分校社会科学副院长和地理学教授。她著有《行动中的中国》(China on the Move)一书，并发表了大量文章。
3月23日，一所小学门口，早晨校门开启前的10分钟，42岁的郑民生用一把12英寸长的匕首刺死了八名小学生并刺伤了另外五名受害者。据一名目击者说，在被制服前，郑民生曾高喊：他们不让我活，把我逼疯了，我也不让大家活。
在接下来的八周里，中国又出现了另外四起类似袭击案。其中一部分可能是模仿作案，而观察员则强调精神疾病、压力和对一个急剧两极分化社会的怨恨才是这种暴力犯罪的起因。更令人发指的是案中的受害者都是无辜的、没有防御能力的孩子。
案件细节给了我们一些线索。郑民生2009年六月离开在医院的工作，在那之前做了18年外科医生。在美国，一个普通医生能够买得起一所房子并过上舒适的生活。而郑民生则是跟自己80岁的母亲和哥哥一家三口住在一所公寓里，睡在客厅。他的月收入不足2000块，这样的收入水平根本负担不起中国精英幼儿园的学费，也不够买一所公寓。
中国的内科医生群体普遍薪酬不高。自上世纪50年代起几十年的计划经济时期，医疗是由政府运营，而作为计划经济体制的遗留，现如今的大多数医疗实践都是非私人的。
尽管郑民生能养活自己，但他微薄的收入让他成为了婚姻市场上的无力竞争者。他的邻居说，郑民生曾谈过几个女朋友，但没人愿意跟他结婚，因为他没钱而且买不起自己的房子。在中国，拥有或至少租得起一处自己的住所的能力仍然是结婚的前提。
我们可能永远无法了解到底是什么使得郑民生走投无路（他已被判处死刑，并已于四月底执行）。另外四起袭击案的情况可能大不相同，但有一点是一样的，都是中年男性独自作案。
这些事件提供了什么我们还不了解的关于中国社会的信息吗？我深表怀疑。我们知道在中国，贫富差距很大，城市人口密集，生活在社会常模之外（比如单身或离异等）要面对很多压力，男人需要成功的压力很大，而精神疾病（还有很多生理疾病）被当成是一种羞耻。
但是我们还知道普通的中国人的生活要好得多，他们有更多的人身自由、受到更好的教育、更加自信、与外界的接触更广泛，并且比他们的父母和祖父母更长寿。在这种情况下，帮助平均水平以下群体、社会边缘人士和弱势群体必须成为政府以及整个社会的首要任务。
无辜者之死
Guobin Yang是伯纳德学院亚洲和中东文化研究系副教授，著有《中国互联网的力量：公民行动主义在线》。
此类袭击案件的高频率（不足两个月的时间内连发五起）似乎为这些是模仿作案的说法提供了佐证。也有人怀疑凶手有精神疾病。但也有人提到了在一个政府严格限制的社会中缺乏情绪疏导。
个人的作案动机可能不尽相同，但这其中有普遍的潜在诱因。这些袭击事件仅仅是一个日益愠怒和争议倍出的社会最猛烈、最残忍的征兆。还有一些其它征兆：
-公众抗议的数量持续增长（1993年的8700次，2005年87000次），其中大部分指向政府当局。
-针对政府当局的暴力袭击数量持续增长，比如焚烧警车和政府大楼。
-绝望的个人以自焚来抗议强行拆迁和缺少寻求正义的法律途径。
-政府官员猖獗的腐败在网络论坛和博客上不断被披露。
这个列表还可以继续。他们共同的主线正是官方、法律和管理所面临的危机。政府当局背离了法律和正义的管理者的角色，却成为冤屈和绝望的来源和目标。当公民没有合法途径去寻求正义时，暴力就成为了他们的选择。
这些暴力事件还有另一个深层的令人堪忧的元素。袭击者把目标指向了他们自己的共同体中最无辜也最受珍爱的成员。共同体常被看做是危机时期的缓冲器（如战争时期）。通过背叛自己的共同体，这些袭击者揭露了该共同体中重大危机，而这个共同体长期以来一直是中国社会稳定的根源。
China's School Killings and Social Despair-Part 1
http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/13/chinas-school-killings-and-social-despair/?ref=asia
中国的校园伤害案件和社会绝望
过去的两个月，中国政府正努力应对一系列边远地区伤害小学生的恶性伤害事件。他们已经以担心模仿案件的出现为由对新闻界施压，并呼吁加强学校安保工作。然而，5月12日，又有一名男性气势汹汹地冲入陕西省的一所农村学校，夺走了七名孩子和两名成人的生命。这是自三月份以来的第五起校园伤害案件，作案人均系持匕首、坎肉刀或其它作案工具的中年男性。在这几起伤害案中，共17人死亡、近100人受伤。
几位评论员说这些袭击案是一个急速发展社会中极端压力的征兆，是政府尚未意识到的一股暗涌。
袭击案的政治意义
Zhou Xueguang 是一位社会学教授、斯坦福大学弗里曼斯波利研究所国际问题研究所高级研究员，目前任教于斯坦福大学北京计划项目。
校园袭击案的种种细节还有待理清——这些校园袭击案是孤立事件还是模仿案件；是因精神疾病引起的还是基于恶意动机的。但是有一个问题是非常明确的：这些事件是当今中国社会中广泛、快速增长的社会焦虑、沮丧和紧张的反映。
从一个层面上来说，这样的紧张状态在任何一个急速变化的社会中都几乎是不可避免的。当今的中国正在经历一个广泛和快速的变革，而这种广度和深度在中国的漫长历史中都是甚少出现的。
大范围的城市化，很多情况下其实是强迫推进的城市化，通过农村和城市地区的迁移、土地占有和居民重置来实现。令人惊恐的社会不公已经是个人在日常生活中所经历的赤裸裸的现实。尤其是大城市飞涨的房价，近年来涨了三到四倍，给富人和穷人间划上了一道深不可测的分界线。
在北京或是其它大城市的街道上闲逛，你能看到那些大门有警卫守卫、需要刷卡进入而且有精心打理的小径和绿化的住宅区。住宅区的高墙将墙内的富人和墙外的噪音和人群分隔开来。
然而，对于一个大学毕业生来说，即便是在大城市有一份体面的工作，在暴涨的房价面前，也不敢奢望在其有生之年能拥有属于一处自己的房子。这与早前的改革时期大不相同，那时的改革政策，尤其是将土地包产到户的政策，引起了生产力的大幅提高并惠及了人口总数中的大多数。
传统的家庭自给自足及邻里间互相帮扶的传统的社会格局已无法应对社会错位、社会封闭和特定群体边缘化的增长。
现在，绝望和怨恨的根源很深。社会学家用“社会混乱”(anomie)来描述社会规范和价值的坍塌。而校园袭击事件很可能就是这些日益紧绷的紧张状态的爆发。
从另一个层面上说，真正令人不安的是中国政府处理这种冲突的方式。它一直非常努力去“压制”社会动乱的征兆，而不是建立和培养起一种缓和的机制。官僚机器——通常是高效、冷淡、不人性化且无情的——常常引发与它所消解的社会怨恨等量的怨恨。
中国的转型取决于这些紧张和冲突是如何解决的。像校园袭击这样的事件在中国这样一个政治化的国家有极其长远的政治意义。就算是孤立、偶然的，这些事件极易获取政治意义，给中央和地方政府以及原本就脆弱的政府和各社会构成间的信任关系带来了强大压力。
中国有句谚语，将人民比喻成水，统治者比喻成舟。它是这样说的：水能载舟亦能覆舟。中国的领导层应该都深谙此道，他们也正出台一些列社会保障计划，包括最低生活水平保障网络、养老计划和医疗保障等，旨在覆盖更大的贫困人民群体。
然后，在缺乏鼓励地方政府解决问题能力机制的情况下，这些公共项目在日益扩散的社会紧张局势中的实际功效还有待观察。
中国的校园伤害案件和社会绝望
过去的两个月，中国政府正努力应对一系列边远地区伤害小学生的恶性伤害事件。他们已经以担心模仿案件的出现为由对新闻界施压，并呼吁加强学校安保工作。然而，5月12日，又有一名男性气势汹汹地冲入陕西省的一所农村学校，夺走了七名孩子和两名成人的生命。这是自三月份以来的第五起校园伤害案件，作案人均系持匕首、坎肉刀或其它作案工具的中年男性。在这几起伤害案中，共17人死亡、近100人受伤。
几位评论员说这些袭击案是一个急速发展社会中极端压力的征兆，是政府尚未意识到的一股暗涌。
袭击案的政治意义
Zhou Xueguang 是一位社会学教授、斯坦福大学弗里曼斯波利研究所国际问题研究所高级研究员，目前任教于斯坦福大学北京计划项目。
校园袭击案的种种细节还有待理清——这些校园袭击案是孤立事件还是模仿案件；是因精神疾病引起的还是基于恶意动机的。但是有一个问题是非常明确的：这些事件是当今中国社会中广泛、快速增长的社会焦虑、沮丧和紧张的反映。
从一个层面上来说，这样的紧张状态在任何一个急速变化的社会中都几乎是不可避免的。当今的中国正在经历一个广泛和快速的变革，而这种广度和深度在中国的漫长历史中都是甚少出现的。
大范围的城市化，很多情况下其实是强迫推进的城市化，通过农村和城市地区的迁移、土地占有和居民重置来实现。令人惊恐的社会不公已经是个人在日常生活中所经历的赤裸裸的现实。尤其是大城市飞涨的房价，近年来涨了三到四倍，给富人和穷人间划上了一道深不可测的分界线。
在北京或是其它大城市的街道上闲逛，你能看到那些大门有警卫守卫、需要刷卡进入而且有精心打理的小径和绿化的住宅区。住宅区的高墙将墙内的富人和墙外的噪音和人群分隔开来。
然而，对于一个大学毕业生来说，即便是在大城市有一份体面的工作，在暴涨的房价面前，也不敢奢望在其有生之年能拥有属于一处自己的房子。这与早前的改革时期大不相同，那时的改革政策，尤其是将土地包产到户的政策，引起了生产力的大幅提高并惠及了人口总数中的大多数。
传统的家庭自给自足及邻里间互相帮扶的传统的社会格局已无法应对社会错位、社会封闭和特定群体边缘化的增长。
现在，绝望和怨恨的根源很深。社会学家用“社会混乱”(anomie)来描述社会规范和价值的坍塌。而校园袭击事件很可能就是这些日益紧绷的紧张状态的爆发。
从另一个层面上说，真正令人不安的是中国政府处理这种冲突的方式。它一直非常努力去“压制”社会动乱的征兆，而不是建立和培养起一种缓和的机制。官僚机器——通常是高效、冷淡、不人性化且无情的——常常引发与它所消解的社会怨恨等量的怨恨。
中国的转型取决于这些紧张和冲突是如何解决的。像校园袭击这样的事件在中国这样一个政治化的国家有极其长远的政治意义。就算是孤立、偶然的，这些事件极易获取政治意义，给中央和地方政府以及原本就脆弱的政府和各社会构成间的信任关系带来了强大压力。
中国有句谚语，将人民比喻成水，统治者比喻成舟。它是这样说的：水能载舟亦能覆舟。中国的领导层应该都深谙此道，他们也正出台一些列社会保障计划，包括最低生活水平保障网络、养老计划和医疗保障等，旨在覆盖更大的贫困人民群体。
然后，在缺乏鼓励地方政府解决问题能力机制的情况下，这些公共项目在日益扩散的社会紧张局势中的实际功效还有待观察。
2010年5月9日星期日
wish you happiness cathy
I just got back from a college classmate's wedding in Shanxi. It's such an exhausting experience, for everyone I guess.
I'd have a small and simple one when I'd be doing it.
I'd have a small and simple one when I'd be doing it.
2010年5月6日星期四
劉若英-12月3日，北京
12月3日 北京
December 3, Beijing
By Rene Liu
十二月三号凌晨第一场雪 December 3, at daybreak, the first snow visits Beijing,
北京的天空落下白色的眼泪 where the sky is dropping white tears.
突然间想起过去的画面 It suddenly reminds me of old memories.
如今谁也不在谁的身边 Now, we are not by each other’s side.
缩著身却挡不住陌生的寒冷 I huddle myself up but still unable to shield the unfamiliar coldness
风陪我站在北四环的路边 The wind accompanies me on the North 4th Ring Road.
刹那间爱与恨冻结了周围 All of a sudden, love and hatred freeze up the surroundings.
街上的号志灯亮了又灭 Lights on the street keep going on and off.
是我离不开你 I cannot live without you.
是我不能没有你 I cannot live without you
爱在这时候结成了冰 At this moment, love has frozen up,
淹没在喧闹人群 and been drowned in the exciting crowd.
是我没什么勇气 I don’t have the nerve.
是我选择了逃避 I chose to escape.
是你穿著我送的新衣 You are wearing the new outfit I bought for you,
牵著别人的手离去 but left me holding another woman’s hand.
December 3, Beijing
By Rene Liu
十二月三号凌晨第一场雪 December 3, at daybreak, the first snow visits Beijing,
北京的天空落下白色的眼泪 where the sky is dropping white tears.
突然间想起过去的画面 It suddenly reminds me of old memories.
如今谁也不在谁的身边 Now, we are not by each other’s side.
缩著身却挡不住陌生的寒冷 I huddle myself up but still unable to shield the unfamiliar coldness
风陪我站在北四环的路边 The wind accompanies me on the North 4th Ring Road.
刹那间爱与恨冻结了周围 All of a sudden, love and hatred freeze up the surroundings.
街上的号志灯亮了又灭 Lights on the street keep going on and off.
是我离不开你 I cannot live without you.
是我不能没有你 I cannot live without you
爱在这时候结成了冰 At this moment, love has frozen up,
淹没在喧闹人群 and been drowned in the exciting crowd.
是我没什么勇气 I don’t have the nerve.
是我选择了逃避 I chose to escape.
是你穿著我送的新衣 You are wearing the new outfit I bought for you,
牵著别人的手离去 but left me holding another woman’s hand.
2010年5月5日星期三
世博志願者-閭丘露薇
I was a volunteer at the National Stadium during Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. It is truly precious experience in my life. But as is pointed out in Lvqiu Luwei's article, volunteers in general do not get respected as they deserve.
Drawing on my own experience, volunteers at those big events are a group of powerless people assigned with some tedious work by the operational team, but for example, what's the point standing at the escalator while there are securities at the entrance already? The only explanation is that they are not doing their job properly. That's typical here, there could be three people doing a one person's job and they couldn't do it right.
The disrespect not only comes from the audience but the paid staff as well. Some Chinese audience called one of the volunteers 'waiter'. What the hell did he think he's doing there? And the paid staff told you what the rules were in the zone, but they would take people in without any accreditations. (This is more of a big issue with the general system in China.) And they would ask you to save several lines of seats for some 'guests'. god, how could we tell other people when we couldn't defend ourselves with a right argument?
Volunteers are not taken seriously; they are not trusted with the responsibilities they are capable to take on; but when something goes wrong, they are the ones to blame.
======================================
世博的志愿者
by 闾丘露薇
到现在为止,世博园內给我印象最深刻的,是那些志愿者.一来人数太多,在园区內走几步就会看到他们，二来他们的被依赖程度太高，来自求助的观众，甚至是管理方。
觉得他们太辛苦，烈日下暴晒，早出晚归，七点多就要出发，好几个晚上，快十二点了，吃完晚饭回酒店的路上，看到他们乘坐的世博巴士，那些年轻而疲惫不堪的脸，透过车窗，看得让人心疼。
观察了一个多星期，好像讲讲这些志愿者。
Up till now, what’s impressed me most in the World Expo Garden is the volunteers. For one, there are a considerably large number of them. You can see volunteers every other steps in the Garden; for another, they are over-relied on by audiences seeking help, and even the administrative staff. They have been working hard: exposed in the burning sun, coming out early and going back late, and leaving for work at as early as 7:00am. For a couple of nights in a row, on my way back to the hotel around midnight, I saw the volunteers’ bus. Through the bus window, those young and exhausted faces made my heart ache a little bit for them.
After my observation for over a week, I’d like to talk about these volunteers here.
园内採取的是人海战术，让观众隨时可以得到志愿者的帮助。但是有必要同一时间，这么多的志愿者出现吗？很多地方，每隔几米就是一个志愿者，就连新闻中心的入口，一边一个保安足够检查证件，结果却要各加一个志愿者。新闻中心的电梯转弯口，楼道内，也有志愿者值班，我不知道他们的功能到底是啥，安保还是提供问询服务？对我来说，更担心这样的消耗，还有一百八十多天，大家这样下去还能坚持多久。
A Huge-crowd strategy is adopted in the World Expo Garden so that visitors could seek for volunteers’ help at any time. But is it necessary to have so many volunteers present at the same time? At a lot of places, there are volunteers every several meters, even at the entrance of the press center, where there is a security guard on each side checking credentials, they place one volunteer there. There are also volunteers on duty at the turn of the escalator, inside the corridor in the press center. I have no idea what their functions are—for security or enquiry service? For me, I’m more worried about this kind of consumption. During more than 180 days left of World Expo, how could they hold on?
不过最让我关心还是志愿者的工作范围到底是哪些？
星期一早上在中国舘门口，香港的一个电视臺摄影师和一个志愿者发生衝突，结果摄影机被志愿者打坏了。事缘这名摄影师走到排队人群里面拍摄，中国舘的工作人员让志愿者去劝阻拍摄。见摄影师不聼，志愿者就动了手，拍了一下摄影机。爭执之中，其他香港记者赶来，这名志愿者情绪激动，又拍打了一下摄影机，而这个过程被完整的拍摄了下来。
However, what I’m most concerned with is the range of volunteers’ responsibilities.
On Monday morning, a cameraman from a HK TV network had a conflict with a volunteer at the entrance of the Chinese Pavilion, and the volunteer broke the video camera. The conflict happened when a volunteer was sent by one of the staff in the Chinese Pavilion to dissuade the camera man to stop filming in the queuing crowd. The volunteer tapped on the video camera after the cameraman refused to stop. During the dispute, other HK journalists rushed to the spot; and the volunteer became agitated and took another tap on the camera. The whole course of events was videotaped.
对错，大家自有评説，我要追问的是哪些负责中国舘安保的人员。维持秩序，本来就是安保人员的职责，而且这是专业，同时有一定风险的工作，推给没有接受过这方面训练的志愿者，对吗？在事情发生之后，把责任全部推到这个志愿者身上，公平吗？
从志愿者第二次拍打摄影机的行为可以看到，这是一个控制情绪能力不高的年轻人，事实上，在这样的情况下，面对几部摄影机，要求一个年轻人保持冷静也不现实。我现在担心的，是遭遇了这样的事情，这名志愿者不要遭到学校或者其他方面的处分，也不要因此而增加太大的心理负担，毕竟对於这名年轻学生来説，这只是一个教训，不应该让他付出太大的代价。
People would have their own judgments on the right and wrong. But I want to further question the security staff in charge of the Chinese Pavilion. To maintain order, which is a professional and risky job, is supposed to be the security personnel’s responsibility. Is it the right thing to do to shift the responsibility to volunteers without professional training in this aspect? Is it fair to scapegoat the volunteer?
Seen from the volunteer’s second tap on the video camera, that young person isn’t good at controlling his temper. As a matter of fact, it’s not realistic to ask a young person to stay calm under that circumstance when faced with several video cameras. I just hope that after what happened, this volunteer wouldn’t receive any sanctions from the university or other institutes; and that he wouldn’t feel too stressed out. After all, this is a lesson for this young student, which shouldn’t make him pay too high a price for it.
我也希望，透过这次事件，有人会反省一下，把这些毫无经验的年轻学生推到衝突的最前綫，是否是负责任的做法？所谓志愿者，只不过是愿意拿出自己的时间来无偿做一些服务別人的事情，他们不是廉价劳工，他们同样需要得到尊重，当出现问题的时候，他们同样需要保护，而不是让他们独力的承担责任。
I also hope that through this incidence, some people would reflect on their decisions to push these inexperienced young students to the frontier of conflicts. Is it a responsible at all? Volunteers are supposed to be a group of people who are willing to devote their time to providing free service to other people; they are not cheap laborers; they deserve to be respected. When issues occur, they also need to be protected, not to have to take on the responsibilities all by themselves.
北京奥运，志愿者不单单弥补了主办机构人手不足的问题，志愿者本身也有不少的收穫，对於年轻人来説，这些是宝贵的人生经验。同样的在上海世博，相信不少志愿者也希望，透过这样的经歷，丰富自己的人生经验。
During the Beijing Olympic Games, volunteers compensated for the problem of the organizer’s being understaffed; and meanwhile, they gained a lot as well. For young people, those are precious life experiences. Similarly on Shanghai World Expo, I believe that a great number of volunteers hope to enrich their life experience through this event.
虽然他们任劳任怨，或者说他们根本没有选择的权利，但是应该有这样的常识，志愿者不应该成为站在最前沿的人，他们也不应该直接面对衝突，他们只是协助的角色。当观众进入世博园的时候，有问题其实不应该第一时间想到的是志愿者，而是应该是哪些拿工资的各类工作人员，因为这是他们的本职工作。
Even though they are fulfilling their duties devotedly and without complaints, or say, they don’t even have the right to choose, they should have the common knowledge that volunteers shouldn’t be the people at the forefront; they shouldn’t be made to directly face conflicts; they are just playing assisting roles. When the visitors enter the World Expo Garden, volunteers are not supposed to be the first one that comes to their mind when they have problems, instead, it should be the various kinds of paid staff, because that’s what they should do.
志愿者是非常可爱的，儘管他们不要求回报，但是不管是观众，还是管理他们的人，以及要求他们配合工作的人，都需要给他们最起码的尊重，这样，才能够让这些年轻人形成尊重他们的习惯，不然，在微笑的背后，是对於这个社会的失望还有沮丧，如果这样的话，未来，如果他们当中的不少人成为了公务员，他们又如何会想到，要去尊重別人？
Volunteers are lovable. Even though they don’t ask for anything in return, they deserve the minimum respect from the audiences, the people in charge of them and the ones who ask for their cooperation or the time. Only in this way, can we make these young people form a habit of respecting others; otherwise, what lie behind the smiles are their disappointments and frustrations with the society. If so, if some of them become civil servants in the future, how would they respect others?
我还记得第一天到上海去领记者证，过程当然一点也不顺利，当耐心耗完的时候，有的记者免不了要给那些负责发証的志愿者一些脸色。其实只要静下心来一想，问题到底出在那里，就会觉得，向这些年轻人发脾气其实很傻。
那天一名相熟的官员一直在现场，他说，他是来给大家骂的，不想大家把气撒在那些志愿者的身上，毕竟那些都只是学生。这些志愿者算是幸运，因为很多时候，志愿者变成了挡箭牌。
I still remember the other day when I went to Shanghai to get my journalist’s certificate. The procedure didn’t go well at all. Some journalists couldn’t help throwing displeasures upon those volunteers responsible after they ran out of their patience. As a matter of fact, if you calm down and think about how things go wrong, you’ll realize that it’s kind of silly to get into a temper with these young people.
On that particular day, an acquainted official was on the spot. He said he was there to be the target for criticism and didn’t want people to take it out on the volunteers and after all they were just students. Those volunteers were kind of lucky, since the group is being frequently taken as the shield.
Drawing on my own experience, volunteers at those big events are a group of powerless people assigned with some tedious work by the operational team, but for example, what's the point standing at the escalator while there are securities at the entrance already? The only explanation is that they are not doing their job properly. That's typical here, there could be three people doing a one person's job and they couldn't do it right.
The disrespect not only comes from the audience but the paid staff as well. Some Chinese audience called one of the volunteers 'waiter'. What the hell did he think he's doing there? And the paid staff told you what the rules were in the zone, but they would take people in without any accreditations. (This is more of a big issue with the general system in China.) And they would ask you to save several lines of seats for some 'guests'. god, how could we tell other people when we couldn't defend ourselves with a right argument?
Volunteers are not taken seriously; they are not trusted with the responsibilities they are capable to take on; but when something goes wrong, they are the ones to blame.
======================================
世博的志愿者
by 闾丘露薇
到现在为止,世博园內给我印象最深刻的,是那些志愿者.一来人数太多,在园区內走几步就会看到他们，二来他们的被依赖程度太高，来自求助的观众，甚至是管理方。
觉得他们太辛苦，烈日下暴晒，早出晚归，七点多就要出发，好几个晚上，快十二点了，吃完晚饭回酒店的路上，看到他们乘坐的世博巴士，那些年轻而疲惫不堪的脸，透过车窗，看得让人心疼。
观察了一个多星期，好像讲讲这些志愿者。
Up till now, what’s impressed me most in the World Expo Garden is the volunteers. For one, there are a considerably large number of them. You can see volunteers every other steps in the Garden; for another, they are over-relied on by audiences seeking help, and even the administrative staff. They have been working hard: exposed in the burning sun, coming out early and going back late, and leaving for work at as early as 7:00am. For a couple of nights in a row, on my way back to the hotel around midnight, I saw the volunteers’ bus. Through the bus window, those young and exhausted faces made my heart ache a little bit for them.
After my observation for over a week, I’d like to talk about these volunteers here.
园内採取的是人海战术，让观众隨时可以得到志愿者的帮助。但是有必要同一时间，这么多的志愿者出现吗？很多地方，每隔几米就是一个志愿者，就连新闻中心的入口，一边一个保安足够检查证件，结果却要各加一个志愿者。新闻中心的电梯转弯口，楼道内，也有志愿者值班，我不知道他们的功能到底是啥，安保还是提供问询服务？对我来说，更担心这样的消耗，还有一百八十多天，大家这样下去还能坚持多久。
A Huge-crowd strategy is adopted in the World Expo Garden so that visitors could seek for volunteers’ help at any time. But is it necessary to have so many volunteers present at the same time? At a lot of places, there are volunteers every several meters, even at the entrance of the press center, where there is a security guard on each side checking credentials, they place one volunteer there. There are also volunteers on duty at the turn of the escalator, inside the corridor in the press center. I have no idea what their functions are—for security or enquiry service? For me, I’m more worried about this kind of consumption. During more than 180 days left of World Expo, how could they hold on?
不过最让我关心还是志愿者的工作范围到底是哪些？
星期一早上在中国舘门口，香港的一个电视臺摄影师和一个志愿者发生衝突，结果摄影机被志愿者打坏了。事缘这名摄影师走到排队人群里面拍摄，中国舘的工作人员让志愿者去劝阻拍摄。见摄影师不聼，志愿者就动了手，拍了一下摄影机。爭执之中，其他香港记者赶来，这名志愿者情绪激动，又拍打了一下摄影机，而这个过程被完整的拍摄了下来。
However, what I’m most concerned with is the range of volunteers’ responsibilities.
On Monday morning, a cameraman from a HK TV network had a conflict with a volunteer at the entrance of the Chinese Pavilion, and the volunteer broke the video camera. The conflict happened when a volunteer was sent by one of the staff in the Chinese Pavilion to dissuade the camera man to stop filming in the queuing crowd. The volunteer tapped on the video camera after the cameraman refused to stop. During the dispute, other HK journalists rushed to the spot; and the volunteer became agitated and took another tap on the camera. The whole course of events was videotaped.
对错，大家自有评説，我要追问的是哪些负责中国舘安保的人员。维持秩序，本来就是安保人员的职责，而且这是专业，同时有一定风险的工作，推给没有接受过这方面训练的志愿者，对吗？在事情发生之后，把责任全部推到这个志愿者身上，公平吗？
从志愿者第二次拍打摄影机的行为可以看到，这是一个控制情绪能力不高的年轻人，事实上，在这样的情况下，面对几部摄影机，要求一个年轻人保持冷静也不现实。我现在担心的，是遭遇了这样的事情，这名志愿者不要遭到学校或者其他方面的处分，也不要因此而增加太大的心理负担，毕竟对於这名年轻学生来説，这只是一个教训，不应该让他付出太大的代价。
People would have their own judgments on the right and wrong. But I want to further question the security staff in charge of the Chinese Pavilion. To maintain order, which is a professional and risky job, is supposed to be the security personnel’s responsibility. Is it the right thing to do to shift the responsibility to volunteers without professional training in this aspect? Is it fair to scapegoat the volunteer?
Seen from the volunteer’s second tap on the video camera, that young person isn’t good at controlling his temper. As a matter of fact, it’s not realistic to ask a young person to stay calm under that circumstance when faced with several video cameras. I just hope that after what happened, this volunteer wouldn’t receive any sanctions from the university or other institutes; and that he wouldn’t feel too stressed out. After all, this is a lesson for this young student, which shouldn’t make him pay too high a price for it.
我也希望，透过这次事件，有人会反省一下，把这些毫无经验的年轻学生推到衝突的最前綫，是否是负责任的做法？所谓志愿者，只不过是愿意拿出自己的时间来无偿做一些服务別人的事情，他们不是廉价劳工，他们同样需要得到尊重，当出现问题的时候，他们同样需要保护，而不是让他们独力的承担责任。
I also hope that through this incidence, some people would reflect on their decisions to push these inexperienced young students to the frontier of conflicts. Is it a responsible at all? Volunteers are supposed to be a group of people who are willing to devote their time to providing free service to other people; they are not cheap laborers; they deserve to be respected. When issues occur, they also need to be protected, not to have to take on the responsibilities all by themselves.
北京奥运，志愿者不单单弥补了主办机构人手不足的问题，志愿者本身也有不少的收穫，对於年轻人来説，这些是宝贵的人生经验。同样的在上海世博，相信不少志愿者也希望，透过这样的经歷，丰富自己的人生经验。
During the Beijing Olympic Games, volunteers compensated for the problem of the organizer’s being understaffed; and meanwhile, they gained a lot as well. For young people, those are precious life experiences. Similarly on Shanghai World Expo, I believe that a great number of volunteers hope to enrich their life experience through this event.
虽然他们任劳任怨，或者说他们根本没有选择的权利，但是应该有这样的常识，志愿者不应该成为站在最前沿的人，他们也不应该直接面对衝突，他们只是协助的角色。当观众进入世博园的时候，有问题其实不应该第一时间想到的是志愿者，而是应该是哪些拿工资的各类工作人员，因为这是他们的本职工作。
Even though they are fulfilling their duties devotedly and without complaints, or say, they don’t even have the right to choose, they should have the common knowledge that volunteers shouldn’t be the people at the forefront; they shouldn’t be made to directly face conflicts; they are just playing assisting roles. When the visitors enter the World Expo Garden, volunteers are not supposed to be the first one that comes to their mind when they have problems, instead, it should be the various kinds of paid staff, because that’s what they should do.
志愿者是非常可爱的，儘管他们不要求回报，但是不管是观众，还是管理他们的人，以及要求他们配合工作的人，都需要给他们最起码的尊重，这样，才能够让这些年轻人形成尊重他们的习惯，不然，在微笑的背后，是对於这个社会的失望还有沮丧，如果这样的话，未来，如果他们当中的不少人成为了公务员，他们又如何会想到，要去尊重別人？
Volunteers are lovable. Even though they don’t ask for anything in return, they deserve the minimum respect from the audiences, the people in charge of them and the ones who ask for their cooperation or the time. Only in this way, can we make these young people form a habit of respecting others; otherwise, what lie behind the smiles are their disappointments and frustrations with the society. If so, if some of them become civil servants in the future, how would they respect others?
我还记得第一天到上海去领记者证，过程当然一点也不顺利，当耐心耗完的时候，有的记者免不了要给那些负责发証的志愿者一些脸色。其实只要静下心来一想，问题到底出在那里，就会觉得，向这些年轻人发脾气其实很傻。
那天一名相熟的官员一直在现场，他说，他是来给大家骂的，不想大家把气撒在那些志愿者的身上，毕竟那些都只是学生。这些志愿者算是幸运，因为很多时候，志愿者变成了挡箭牌。
I still remember the other day when I went to Shanghai to get my journalist’s certificate. The procedure didn’t go well at all. Some journalists couldn’t help throwing displeasures upon those volunteers responsible after they ran out of their patience. As a matter of fact, if you calm down and think about how things go wrong, you’ll realize that it’s kind of silly to get into a temper with these young people.
On that particular day, an acquainted official was on the spot. He said he was there to be the target for criticism and didn’t want people to take it out on the volunteers and after all they were just students. Those volunteers were kind of lucky, since the group is being frequently taken as the shield.
2010年5月4日星期二
敲開最好的可能
http://www.my1510.cn/article.php?id=fbdaa240a9d9bf54
敲开最好的可能/drunkpiano
《瞭望东方周刊》
To unwrap the best possibilities
Looking East Weekly
在我剑桥的家里，每天回家都能看到地上躺着几封慈善机构的捐款号召信。对此我早习以为常，不过前两个星期收到的一封邮件，则可以说是别具一格：它直接把两个折叠的大塑料口袋塞到了我家里，附信写道：请把你不要的、干净整洁的衣服放到这些塑料口袋里，并在X月X日放到你家门口，我们届时会来领取，并捐给XX 机构转卖……慈善做得如此周到，让它真正成为举手之劳，正中我这种懒人的下怀。于是我把一批早已淘汰又不知该往哪里送的衣服装了满满一口袋，在指定日期放到门口，晚上回来一看，果然被拉走了。
At my house in Cambridge, we’d see a couple of appealing letters from charity organizations lying on the ground every day. I’ve been used to it since long time ago, but two weeks ago, we received a mail packet that was really distinctive from the other ones. It was slipped into my house, containing two big folded plastic bags and an attached letter that read: Please put your clean, neat unwanted clothes into these plastic bags and place it in front of your house on x/x; we’ll come and collect them and donate them to xx organization for sale…Charity work is being done in such a considerate way, making it only a slight effort for people, especially for lazy ones like me. So I stuffed one plastic bag with my want unwanted clothes which I don’t know where to send; I put the bag in front of my house on the specified day and found it collected when I got back in the evening.
正如市场经济体系中缺少的往往不是资本，而是引导这些资本流向合理项目的中间人，一个正常社会中缺少的往往不是人的善意，而是引导这些善意流向弱势群体的中间人。在经济体系中，那个给资本穿针引线的主角是金融机构，而在社会生活中，给人们的善意做中介的则是各种公益慈善机构。
In a normal society, what it usually lacks is not people’s goodwill but the agents who lead the goodwill to underprivileged groups; just like the market economy, what it usually lacks is not capital, but the agents who could guide the capital into feasible projects. Within the economical system, the leading role that functions as the go-between is financial institute; while in social life, the agent for people’s goodwill is various non-profit charity organizations.
剑桥小镇虽然只有10来万人口，其公益组织却可以说是密密麻麻。就我家附近一公里左右，我就见到过10来家慈善店铺，有帮助病人的Hospice shop，有致力扶贫的Oxfam，有保护流浪猫的Cats Protection，有帮助问题青少年的Aid of Romsey Mill，有援助精神病人的Mind……如果再去统计那些我没有路过或者注意到的慈善店铺，简直可以说到了“三步一小个、五步一大个”的地步。乍一到剑桥时我还奇怪为什么这个小镇怎么这么多卖便宜货的旧货铺，慢慢地才知道它们都是慈善组织的筹款渠道之一。至于镇中心每天有人叫卖“Big Issue”的声音，所有熟悉剑桥的人恐怕都习以为常了——Big Issue是专门雇佣流浪汉来叫卖、帮助流浪汉的一份街头报纸。
A small town as Cambridge only has a population of 100,000, but non-profit organizations are everywhere in it. About one kilometer away from my house, I see like 10 charity stores, including Hospice shop helping the sick, Oxfam devoted in poverty relief, Cats Protection protecting homeless cats, Aid of Romsey Mill helping troubled teenagers and Mind that aiding people with mental problems etc. Those offices that I haven’t walked by or noticed taken into account, it’s fair to say they are basically everywhere in town. When I first arrived Cambridge, I wondered why there were so many junk shops selling cheap goods, but gradually I got to know that they are one of charity organizations’ ways for fundraising. As to the voices peddling ‘Big Issue’ in the center of town, people who are unfamiliar with Cambridge are used to them already: ‘Big Issue’ is a street newspaper that employs the homeless to sell so as to help them.
从这些组织的密度来看，可以说凡是社会问题出现死角的地方，就有慈善的身影出现。但是慈善的兴盛，不是从天而降的，它需要一整套制度的土壤。比如，在英国注册一个慈善组织或其分部行政门槛很低，慈善委员会的网上信息显示，如果申请材料规范，一般批准注册一个慈善组织只需要10个工作日左右。当然慈善委员会对慈善组织监管也很严格，不但要求它们定期提供财务报表，而且将其财务公之于众（包括网络公开），使其接受民众监督，若有任何民众举报，委员会都会对慈善组织进行调查。同时，政府本身不但注资几十亿英镑资助NGO发展，而且法律规定对慈善店铺必须至少免80%的税收，使得慈善事业的经济可行性大大增强。
Judging from the density of these organizations, it can be concluded that where there is a dead corner with social problems, there are the appearances of charity. However, the blooming of charity work doesn’t present itself out of nowhere; it requires the seedbed of an integrated system. For example, the administrational entrance-hurdle for charity organizations or their branches is very low. As it shows on the website of the Charity Commission, it usually takes about 10 work days for the approval of the establishment of a charity organization, if they have standard application documents. Surely, the Charity Commission has strict supervisions over charity organizations. The commission requires organizations to provide financial reports at regular intervals, and publicly announces the reports through a variety of means including the internet, so that the masses can supervise on them. If there is any whistle blowing from the mass, the commission would carry out investigations on the organizations. Meanwhile, the government doesn’t only register capital to support the development of NGOs, there are also provisions in the laws that charity stores should get tax reduction at 80% at least. These measures greatly enhance the economical feasibility of charitable enterprises.
相比之下，中国要筹办慈善组织，则困难重重。不但要向民政部注册，而且要找“挂靠单位”——而要找到一个“挂靠单位”，往往难于上青天；如果要成立筹款基金，还需要有非常高的启动资金（200万-800万）；此外，“同一领域在同一行政区域不得重复设立社会团”、“民办非企业单位不得设立分支机构”等法规明显阻碍NGO之间的良性竞争和扩展。正是因为这些制度障碍，中国的公益事业极不发达，即使现有的公益性组织，据专家估算百分之九十也是以“地下”或者商业机构的形式存在，这不仅使得其慈善筹款工作开展困难，而且也使得政府难以对其进行合理监管。中国人也许和英国人一样乐于助人，但是给中国人的善意穿针引线的组织资源却因为制度原因发育不良。
In comparison, the establishment of charity organizations encounters a variety of difficulties in China. You have to register at the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and have to find an organization you can affiliate to, but it’s incredibly hard to find such an organization; and it requires a large amount of start-up capital (two to eight million RMB) to establish a fundraising fund; in addition, legislations like ‘reduplication of social groups in the same field is not approved in the same administrative region’, ‘non-enterprises run by local people are not allowed to establish branch organizations’ apparently impede the healthy competitions and expansions among NGOs. Non-profit enterprises are extremely under-developed because of those institutional impediments. Even for existing non-profit organizations, it’s estimated by specialists that about 90% of them are in existence as ‘underground’ organizations or commercial organizations, which not only makes it hard for them to promote their charitable fundraising work, but also makes it have for the government to reasonably supervise on the. Chinese people may be as ready to help others as British people, but the agents that could go between Chinese people’s goodwill and charities are mal-developed due to institutional inadequacies.
关心民主理念的人往往会为一个问题而争论不休：民众到底值不值得信任？有人认为民众不过是一群受情绪支配的乌合之众，有人则认为民众天然具有相互关爱理性协商的社区精神。其实，从民众既可能万众一心地在广场上高呼万万岁、也可能在一个10万人的小镇运转几十个慈善组织的记录来看，民众可能从来没有统一的“ 天性”，好的制度可能激励出人性最善良美好的一面，而坏的制度则可能暴露其最丑陋的一面。俾斯麦说“政治是一种可能性的艺术”，那么我们能敲开人性中哪种可能性，说到底还是取决于我们在缔造什么样的政治。
People who care about democratic ideals would frequently argue about this issue: Are the masses trustworthy or not? Some people think that the masses are just a bunch of mobs dominated by their pulses; and some think that the masses naturally possess the community spirits of mutual care and love as well as rational negotiations. As a matter of fact, seeing from the facts that the masses would stick together and shout long lives standing on the square, and that there are several dozen of charity organizations in operation in a small town with a population of 100,000, the masses may well don’t have unitary ‘nature’. A fine system could inspire the kindness and goodwill in human nature; while an inadequate one might expose the ugliest aspect of it. Bosmarck said that politics is an art of feasibilities. In that way, what feasibilities we are able to unwrap ultimately depends on what kind of politics we are building up.
敲开最好的可能/drunkpiano
《瞭望东方周刊》
To unwrap the best possibilities
Looking East Weekly
在我剑桥的家里，每天回家都能看到地上躺着几封慈善机构的捐款号召信。对此我早习以为常，不过前两个星期收到的一封邮件，则可以说是别具一格：它直接把两个折叠的大塑料口袋塞到了我家里，附信写道：请把你不要的、干净整洁的衣服放到这些塑料口袋里，并在X月X日放到你家门口，我们届时会来领取，并捐给XX 机构转卖……慈善做得如此周到，让它真正成为举手之劳，正中我这种懒人的下怀。于是我把一批早已淘汰又不知该往哪里送的衣服装了满满一口袋，在指定日期放到门口，晚上回来一看，果然被拉走了。
At my house in Cambridge, we’d see a couple of appealing letters from charity organizations lying on the ground every day. I’ve been used to it since long time ago, but two weeks ago, we received a mail packet that was really distinctive from the other ones. It was slipped into my house, containing two big folded plastic bags and an attached letter that read: Please put your clean, neat unwanted clothes into these plastic bags and place it in front of your house on x/x; we’ll come and collect them and donate them to xx organization for sale…Charity work is being done in such a considerate way, making it only a slight effort for people, especially for lazy ones like me. So I stuffed one plastic bag with my want unwanted clothes which I don’t know where to send; I put the bag in front of my house on the specified day and found it collected when I got back in the evening.
正如市场经济体系中缺少的往往不是资本，而是引导这些资本流向合理项目的中间人，一个正常社会中缺少的往往不是人的善意，而是引导这些善意流向弱势群体的中间人。在经济体系中，那个给资本穿针引线的主角是金融机构，而在社会生活中，给人们的善意做中介的则是各种公益慈善机构。
In a normal society, what it usually lacks is not people’s goodwill but the agents who lead the goodwill to underprivileged groups; just like the market economy, what it usually lacks is not capital, but the agents who could guide the capital into feasible projects. Within the economical system, the leading role that functions as the go-between is financial institute; while in social life, the agent for people’s goodwill is various non-profit charity organizations.
剑桥小镇虽然只有10来万人口，其公益组织却可以说是密密麻麻。就我家附近一公里左右，我就见到过10来家慈善店铺，有帮助病人的Hospice shop，有致力扶贫的Oxfam，有保护流浪猫的Cats Protection，有帮助问题青少年的Aid of Romsey Mill，有援助精神病人的Mind……如果再去统计那些我没有路过或者注意到的慈善店铺，简直可以说到了“三步一小个、五步一大个”的地步。乍一到剑桥时我还奇怪为什么这个小镇怎么这么多卖便宜货的旧货铺，慢慢地才知道它们都是慈善组织的筹款渠道之一。至于镇中心每天有人叫卖“Big Issue”的声音，所有熟悉剑桥的人恐怕都习以为常了——Big Issue是专门雇佣流浪汉来叫卖、帮助流浪汉的一份街头报纸。
A small town as Cambridge only has a population of 100,000, but non-profit organizations are everywhere in it. About one kilometer away from my house, I see like 10 charity stores, including Hospice shop helping the sick, Oxfam devoted in poverty relief, Cats Protection protecting homeless cats, Aid of Romsey Mill helping troubled teenagers and Mind that aiding people with mental problems etc. Those offices that I haven’t walked by or noticed taken into account, it’s fair to say they are basically everywhere in town. When I first arrived Cambridge, I wondered why there were so many junk shops selling cheap goods, but gradually I got to know that they are one of charity organizations’ ways for fundraising. As to the voices peddling ‘Big Issue’ in the center of town, people who are unfamiliar with Cambridge are used to them already: ‘Big Issue’ is a street newspaper that employs the homeless to sell so as to help them.
从这些组织的密度来看，可以说凡是社会问题出现死角的地方，就有慈善的身影出现。但是慈善的兴盛，不是从天而降的，它需要一整套制度的土壤。比如，在英国注册一个慈善组织或其分部行政门槛很低，慈善委员会的网上信息显示，如果申请材料规范，一般批准注册一个慈善组织只需要10个工作日左右。当然慈善委员会对慈善组织监管也很严格，不但要求它们定期提供财务报表，而且将其财务公之于众（包括网络公开），使其接受民众监督，若有任何民众举报，委员会都会对慈善组织进行调查。同时，政府本身不但注资几十亿英镑资助NGO发展，而且法律规定对慈善店铺必须至少免80%的税收，使得慈善事业的经济可行性大大增强。
Judging from the density of these organizations, it can be concluded that where there is a dead corner with social problems, there are the appearances of charity. However, the blooming of charity work doesn’t present itself out of nowhere; it requires the seedbed of an integrated system. For example, the administrational entrance-hurdle for charity organizations or their branches is very low. As it shows on the website of the Charity Commission, it usually takes about 10 work days for the approval of the establishment of a charity organization, if they have standard application documents. Surely, the Charity Commission has strict supervisions over charity organizations. The commission requires organizations to provide financial reports at regular intervals, and publicly announces the reports through a variety of means including the internet, so that the masses can supervise on them. If there is any whistle blowing from the mass, the commission would carry out investigations on the organizations. Meanwhile, the government doesn’t only register capital to support the development of NGOs, there are also provisions in the laws that charity stores should get tax reduction at 80% at least. These measures greatly enhance the economical feasibility of charitable enterprises.
相比之下，中国要筹办慈善组织，则困难重重。不但要向民政部注册，而且要找“挂靠单位”——而要找到一个“挂靠单位”，往往难于上青天；如果要成立筹款基金，还需要有非常高的启动资金（200万-800万）；此外，“同一领域在同一行政区域不得重复设立社会团”、“民办非企业单位不得设立分支机构”等法规明显阻碍NGO之间的良性竞争和扩展。正是因为这些制度障碍，中国的公益事业极不发达，即使现有的公益性组织，据专家估算百分之九十也是以“地下”或者商业机构的形式存在，这不仅使得其慈善筹款工作开展困难，而且也使得政府难以对其进行合理监管。中国人也许和英国人一样乐于助人，但是给中国人的善意穿针引线的组织资源却因为制度原因发育不良。
In comparison, the establishment of charity organizations encounters a variety of difficulties in China. You have to register at the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and have to find an organization you can affiliate to, but it’s incredibly hard to find such an organization; and it requires a large amount of start-up capital (two to eight million RMB) to establish a fundraising fund; in addition, legislations like ‘reduplication of social groups in the same field is not approved in the same administrative region’, ‘non-enterprises run by local people are not allowed to establish branch organizations’ apparently impede the healthy competitions and expansions among NGOs. Non-profit enterprises are extremely under-developed because of those institutional impediments. Even for existing non-profit organizations, it’s estimated by specialists that about 90% of them are in existence as ‘underground’ organizations or commercial organizations, which not only makes it hard for them to promote their charitable fundraising work, but also makes it have for the government to reasonably supervise on the. Chinese people may be as ready to help others as British people, but the agents that could go between Chinese people’s goodwill and charities are mal-developed due to institutional inadequacies.
关心民主理念的人往往会为一个问题而争论不休：民众到底值不值得信任？有人认为民众不过是一群受情绪支配的乌合之众，有人则认为民众天然具有相互关爱理性协商的社区精神。其实，从民众既可能万众一心地在广场上高呼万万岁、也可能在一个10万人的小镇运转几十个慈善组织的记录来看，民众可能从来没有统一的“ 天性”，好的制度可能激励出人性最善良美好的一面，而坏的制度则可能暴露其最丑陋的一面。俾斯麦说“政治是一种可能性的艺术”，那么我们能敲开人性中哪种可能性，说到底还是取决于我们在缔造什么样的政治。
People who care about democratic ideals would frequently argue about this issue: Are the masses trustworthy or not? Some people think that the masses are just a bunch of mobs dominated by their pulses; and some think that the masses naturally possess the community spirits of mutual care and love as well as rational negotiations. As a matter of fact, seeing from the facts that the masses would stick together and shout long lives standing on the square, and that there are several dozen of charity organizations in operation in a small town with a population of 100,000, the masses may well don’t have unitary ‘nature’. A fine system could inspire the kindness and goodwill in human nature; while an inadequate one might expose the ugliest aspect of it. Bosmarck said that politics is an art of feasibilities. In that way, what feasibilities we are able to unwrap ultimately depends on what kind of politics we are building up.
2010年5月3日星期一
I don't know what I'm talking about.
One of my best friends in high school just told me today that she is having an affair with a married man. They work together, and he has a child. OH MY GOD! That's the worst relationship I could imagine: dipping your pen in the company ink + having a relationship with a married man + having a relationship with a married man with a child. It's bad enough to have a relationship with a divorced man with a child. Do you not remember how you hated your father when you were little?
It's hard to argue with her, 'cause she's always been the 'eloquent' one and she has been playing the 'emotions are incotrollable card'. Come on, I know the loving feelings are hard to control and how irresitible to be connected with a person and to be loved and spoiled, but human beings should be able to control their behaviors. Isn't there a bottom line for you any more?? I don't want to see you get hurt; but i'd rather you hurt you self than hurt a loving wife and a boy and yourself at the same time. And for the man, isn't there a woman there for you with whom you promised to spend the rest of your life together?
Why are people making the crappy promises they have no intentions and resolutions to keep? And how could you expect to eat the cake and have it too?
It's hard to argue with her, 'cause she's always been the 'eloquent' one and she has been playing the 'emotions are incotrollable card'. Come on, I know the loving feelings are hard to control and how irresitible to be connected with a person and to be loved and spoiled, but human beings should be able to control their behaviors. Isn't there a bottom line for you any more?? I don't want to see you get hurt; but i'd rather you hurt you self than hurt a loving wife and a boy and yourself at the same time. And for the man, isn't there a woman there for you with whom you promised to spend the rest of your life together?
Why are people making the crappy promises they have no intentions and resolutions to keep? And how could you expect to eat the cake and have it too?
平安大道的延伸-左小祖咒
平安大道的延伸
左小祖咒
平安大道躺着一个人
假牙跌在路边 嘴咧着
当你来到他身边
和你想象的不同
他不会象以前那样吻你
你会感觉有种东西在向你袭来
不是失落 只是很悲伤
亲爱的朋友 当你走在平安大道
我的兄弟对我说:
一个人感到悲伤就去平安大道
一个人感到失落就不要去平安大道
平安大道有一个小店
卖日杂生活品 你眼睛眯着
整个人儿看上去都在笑
很多人陪着你笑
他花五块钱去你的店买酒
你偶然找给他五块五
说他是你的爱人
亲爱的朋友 当它还不叫平安大道时
我的兄弟对我说:
一个人感到悲伤就去平安大道
一个人感到失落就不要去平安大道
平安大道有一个酒馆
你经常去那儿 眼眯着
和你预料中一样
我抱着吉他对你唱着:
“姑娘，你雏菊花的脸蛋儿哟
令我的心灵感到如此亲切哟，
你雏菊花的脸蛋儿
你雏菊花的脸蛋儿哟......”
亲爱的朋友 当它还不叫平安大道时
我的兄弟对我说:
一个人感到悲伤就去平安大道
一个人感到失落就不要去平安大道
一个人感到悲伤就去平安大道
一个人感到爱就去平安大道
Extensions of Peace/Ping’An Boulevard
By Zuo Xiao Zu Zhou
There was a man lying on Peace Boulevard,
with his mouth open and his false teeth fallen on the roadside.
When you came close to him,
different from what you'd expected,
he wouldn't kiss you like he often did before;
you’d feel there’s something coming upon you.
It's not upset;
it's just sadness.
My dear friends, when you are walking down Peace Boulevard.
my buddy told me:
If one feels sad, they should go to Peace Boulevard
If one feels upset, they shouldn't go to Peace Boulevard
There is a small store on Peace Boulevard,
selling groceries.
Your eyes are squinting.
It looks like you are smiling happily.
Lots of people are smiling along.
He bought some alcohol for five kuai in your store,
and you accidentally gave him five fifty for the change,
saying he's your sweetheart.
Dear friends, when it's not yet called Peace Boulevard,
My buddy told me:
If one feels sad, they should go to Peace Boulevard
If one feels upset, they shouldn't go to Peace Boulevard
There is a small pub on Peace Boulevard.
You often go there, with your eyes squinting.
As you expected,
I sang to you holding my guitar:
'Hey girl, your daisy-like pretty face,
makes me feel intimate to you.
your daisy-like pretty face
your daisy-like pretty face.'
Dear friends, when it's not yet called Peace Boulevard,
my buddy said to me:
If one is sad, they should go to Peace Boulevard;
If one is upset, they shouldn't go to Peace Boulevard;
If one feels sad, they should go to Peace Boulevard;
If one feels love, they should go to Peace Boulevard.
左小祖咒
平安大道躺着一个人
假牙跌在路边 嘴咧着
当你来到他身边
和你想象的不同
他不会象以前那样吻你
你会感觉有种东西在向你袭来
不是失落 只是很悲伤
亲爱的朋友 当你走在平安大道
我的兄弟对我说:
一个人感到悲伤就去平安大道
一个人感到失落就不要去平安大道
平安大道有一个小店
卖日杂生活品 你眼睛眯着
整个人儿看上去都在笑
很多人陪着你笑
他花五块钱去你的店买酒
你偶然找给他五块五
说他是你的爱人
亲爱的朋友 当它还不叫平安大道时
我的兄弟对我说:
一个人感到悲伤就去平安大道
一个人感到失落就不要去平安大道
平安大道有一个酒馆
你经常去那儿 眼眯着
和你预料中一样
我抱着吉他对你唱着:
“姑娘，你雏菊花的脸蛋儿哟
令我的心灵感到如此亲切哟，
你雏菊花的脸蛋儿
你雏菊花的脸蛋儿哟......”
亲爱的朋友 当它还不叫平安大道时
我的兄弟对我说:
一个人感到悲伤就去平安大道
一个人感到失落就不要去平安大道
一个人感到悲伤就去平安大道
一个人感到爱就去平安大道
Extensions of Peace/Ping’An Boulevard
By Zuo Xiao Zu Zhou
There was a man lying on Peace Boulevard,
with his mouth open and his false teeth fallen on the roadside.
When you came close to him,
different from what you'd expected,
he wouldn't kiss you like he often did before;
you’d feel there’s something coming upon you.
It's not upset;
it's just sadness.
My dear friends, when you are walking down Peace Boulevard.
my buddy told me:
If one feels sad, they should go to Peace Boulevard
If one feels upset, they shouldn't go to Peace Boulevard
There is a small store on Peace Boulevard,
selling groceries.
Your eyes are squinting.
It looks like you are smiling happily.
Lots of people are smiling along.
He bought some alcohol for five kuai in your store,
and you accidentally gave him five fifty for the change,
saying he's your sweetheart.
Dear friends, when it's not yet called Peace Boulevard,
My buddy told me:
If one feels sad, they should go to Peace Boulevard
If one feels upset, they shouldn't go to Peace Boulevard
There is a small pub on Peace Boulevard.
You often go there, with your eyes squinting.
As you expected,
I sang to you holding my guitar:
'Hey girl, your daisy-like pretty face,
makes me feel intimate to you.
your daisy-like pretty face
your daisy-like pretty face.'
Dear friends, when it's not yet called Peace Boulevard,
my buddy said to me:
If one is sad, they should go to Peace Boulevard;
If one is upset, they shouldn't go to Peace Boulevard;
If one feels sad, they should go to Peace Boulevard;
If one feels love, they should go to Peace Boulevard.
2010年5月1日星期六
當我離開你的時候-左小祖咒 陳珊妮
你听说我要离开家乡的时候
亲爱的人儿你不一定非哭不可
当你看到浓烟离开炮火的时候
亲爱的人儿你不一定非笑不可
你更多地依靠我的展示方式
不是因为爱情多么令人陶醉
这需要你去吹出那个音调
吃上点胡椒
但是我会让你懂得什么是骄傲
你看,当人们走近你的时候
他们不知道谦卑得有些轻佻
象夏日的微风
象夏日的微风
你若是要嫁人不要嫁给我
因为我和你一样要得太多
除非你得到的又全部失去
象赤贫的石头
象赤贫的石头
当你听说我要离开家乡的时候
亲爱的人儿你不一定非哭不可
当你看到浓烟离开炮火的时候
亲爱的人儿你不一定非笑不可
亲爱的人儿
When you hear I’m leaving my hometown,
My darling, you don’t have to cry.
When you see thick smokes drift away from gun fires,
My darling, you don’t have to smile.
You are more dependent on my expressing style,
Not because love is incredibly intoxicating.
It needs you to blow the tone.
Eat some pepper.
But I’ll make you understand what pride is.
Look, when people approach you,
They don’t know their modesty seems frivolous,
Like a summer breeze
Like a summer breeze.
If you want to get married, don’t marry me.
‘cause I’m as greedy as you are.
Unless you lose whatever you’ve got,
Like an impoverished rock
Like an impoverished rock.
When you hear I’m leaving my hometown,
My darling, you don’t have to cry.
When you see thick smokes drift away from gun fires,
My darling, you don’t have to smile.
My darling.
亲爱的人儿你不一定非哭不可
当你看到浓烟离开炮火的时候
亲爱的人儿你不一定非笑不可
你更多地依靠我的展示方式
不是因为爱情多么令人陶醉
这需要你去吹出那个音调
吃上点胡椒
但是我会让你懂得什么是骄傲
你看,当人们走近你的时候
他们不知道谦卑得有些轻佻
象夏日的微风
象夏日的微风
你若是要嫁人不要嫁给我
因为我和你一样要得太多
除非你得到的又全部失去
象赤贫的石头
象赤贫的石头
当你听说我要离开家乡的时候
亲爱的人儿你不一定非哭不可
当你看到浓烟离开炮火的时候
亲爱的人儿你不一定非笑不可
亲爱的人儿
When you hear I’m leaving my hometown,
My darling, you don’t have to cry.
When you see thick smokes drift away from gun fires,
My darling, you don’t have to smile.
You are more dependent on my expressing style,
Not because love is incredibly intoxicating.
It needs you to blow the tone.
Eat some pepper.
But I’ll make you understand what pride is.
Look, when people approach you,
They don’t know their modesty seems frivolous,
Like a summer breeze
Like a summer breeze.
If you want to get married, don’t marry me.
‘cause I’m as greedy as you are.
Unless you lose whatever you’ve got,
Like an impoverished rock
Like an impoverished rock.
When you hear I’m leaving my hometown,
My darling, you don’t have to cry.
When you see thick smokes drift away from gun fires,
My darling, you don’t have to smile.
My darling.
2010年4月29日星期四
2010/04/29 夢裡花落知多少
三毛：荷西在婚後的第六年離開了這個世界，走得突然，我們來不及告別。這樣也好，因為我們永遠不告別。
Echo: Jose left this world in the sixth year after we got married. It was such a sudden that we didn’t even have the chance to say goodbye. But maybe it’s good for us, since in this way, we never have to say goodbye to each other.
=================
記得當時年紀小
你愛談天我愛笑
有一回我們並肩坐在桃樹下
風在林梢鳥兒在叫
我們不知怎樣睡著了
夢裡花落知多少。
Remember when we were young,
you loved chatting and I was always smiling.
Once we were sitting shoulder to shoulder under a peach tree
There were breezes sweeping over the treetops and birds singing.
We slided into sleep.
without knowing how many blossoms have fallen in the dreams.
--三毛 《夢裡花落知多少》
Echo: Jose left this world in the sixth year after we got married. It was such a sudden that we didn’t even have the chance to say goodbye. But maybe it’s good for us, since in this way, we never have to say goodbye to each other.
=================
記得當時年紀小
你愛談天我愛笑
有一回我們並肩坐在桃樹下
風在林梢鳥兒在叫
我們不知怎樣睡著了
夢裡花落知多少。
Remember when we were young,
you loved chatting and I was always smiling.
Once we were sitting shoulder to shoulder under a peach tree
There were breezes sweeping over the treetops and birds singing.
We slided into sleep.
without knowing how many blossoms have fallen in the dreams.
--三毛 《夢裡花落知多少》
2010年4月28日星期三
2010/04/28
荷西：我知道你性情不好，心地却是很好的，吵架打架都可能发生，不过我们还是要结婚。
我想得很清楚，要留你在我身边，只有跟你结婚，要不然我的心永远不能减去这份痛楚的感觉，我们夏天结婚好吗？
就这句话，三毛看了十遍，然后去散了个步，回来就决定嫁给大胡子荷西。
三毛：如果有来生，你愿意再娶我吗？
荷西：不，我不要。如果有来生，我要活一个不一样的人生
三毛打荷西。
荷西：你也是这么想的，不是吗？
三毛看看荷西：还真是这么想的
既然下辈子不能在一起了，好好珍惜这辈子吧！
三毛：如果我死了，你一定要答应我，重新娶个女人。
荷西：你神经，不和你说话！
三毛：神经也要说，你不娶，我死了也不会安心的。
荷西：要是你死了我一把火把家烧掉，然后上船漂到老死。
三毛：放火烧房子也好，只要你肯再娶。
荷西：要到你很老我也很老，两个人都走不动也扶不动了，穿上干干净净的衣服，一齐躺在床上，闭上眼睛说：好吧！一齐去吧！
Jose: I know you don’t have a gentle temperament, but you have a good heart. Arguments and fights are likely to happen, but we are getting married anyway. I’ve thought it through. To marry you is the only way to keep you by my side. Otherwise, I can never get rid of the pain. Shall we get married in the summer?
Echo read it for ten times, then she took a walk. She decided to marry this bushy-bearded Jose after she got back.
Echo: If there was a next life, would you marry me again?
Jose: No, I wouldn’t. If there was a next life, I’d live a different life.
Echo hit Jose.
Jose: You think it that way too, don’t you?
Echo took a look at Jose and said: Yeah I do.
Since we couldn’t be together in the next life, let’s live it to the fullest in this one.
Echo: You have to promise me that if I died, you’d marry another woman.
Jose: You are nuts. I’m talking with you about that.
Echo: I’m still gonna say that. If you don’t, I wouldn’t feel at ease when I’m dead.
Jose: If you died, I’d burn the house and float in a boat on the water, till I die of old age.
Echo: It’s fine you’d burn the house. Just promise me you’d marry somebody.
Jose: When we are both really old and cannot walk, we’ll be dressed up neatly and lie in bed together, saying: alright, we’ll die together.
我想得很清楚，要留你在我身边，只有跟你结婚，要不然我的心永远不能减去这份痛楚的感觉，我们夏天结婚好吗？
就这句话，三毛看了十遍，然后去散了个步，回来就决定嫁给大胡子荷西。
三毛：如果有来生，你愿意再娶我吗？
荷西：不，我不要。如果有来生，我要活一个不一样的人生
三毛打荷西。
荷西：你也是这么想的，不是吗？
三毛看看荷西：还真是这么想的
既然下辈子不能在一起了，好好珍惜这辈子吧！
三毛：如果我死了，你一定要答应我，重新娶个女人。
荷西：你神经，不和你说话！
三毛：神经也要说，你不娶，我死了也不会安心的。
荷西：要是你死了我一把火把家烧掉，然后上船漂到老死。
三毛：放火烧房子也好，只要你肯再娶。
荷西：要到你很老我也很老，两个人都走不动也扶不动了，穿上干干净净的衣服，一齐躺在床上，闭上眼睛说：好吧！一齐去吧！
Jose: I know you don’t have a gentle temperament, but you have a good heart. Arguments and fights are likely to happen, but we are getting married anyway. I’ve thought it through. To marry you is the only way to keep you by my side. Otherwise, I can never get rid of the pain. Shall we get married in the summer?
Echo read it for ten times, then she took a walk. She decided to marry this bushy-bearded Jose after she got back.
Echo: If there was a next life, would you marry me again?
Jose: No, I wouldn’t. If there was a next life, I’d live a different life.
Echo hit Jose.
Jose: You think it that way too, don’t you?
Echo took a look at Jose and said: Yeah I do.
Since we couldn’t be together in the next life, let’s live it to the fullest in this one.
Echo: You have to promise me that if I died, you’d marry another woman.
Jose: You are nuts. I’m talking with you about that.
Echo: I’m still gonna say that. If you don’t, I wouldn’t feel at ease when I’m dead.
Jose: If you died, I’d burn the house and float in a boat on the water, till I die of old age.
Echo: It’s fine you’d burn the house. Just promise me you’d marry somebody.
Jose: When we are both really old and cannot walk, we’ll be dressed up neatly and lie in bed together, saying: alright, we’ll die together.
2010年4月27日星期二
2010/04/27
荷西：Echo，你等我六年，我有四年大学要念，还有两年兵役要服，六年一过，我就娶你。
荷西：我的愿望是拥有一栋小小的公寓。我外出赚钱，Echo在家煮饭给我吃，这是我人生最快乐的事。
三毛：我们都还年轻，你也才高三，怎么就想结婚了呢？
荷西：我是碰到你之后才想结婚的。
荷西：你是不是一定要嫁个有钱人。
三毛：如果我不爱他，他是百万富翁我也不嫁，如果我爱他，他是千万富翁我也嫁。
荷西：。。。说来说去你还是要嫁有钱人。
三毛：也有例外的时候
荷西：如果跟我呢
三毛：那只要吃得饱的钱也算了
荷西思索了一下：你吃得多吗？
三毛十分小心的回答：不多，不多，以后还可以少吃点。
荷西：我们结婚吧
三毛：我的心已经碎了。
荷西：心碎了可以用胶水粘起来。
Jose: Echo, wait for me for six years. I’m going to spend four years in college and then serve in the military for two years. I’ll marry you in six years
Jose: I wish we’d own a small house. I’d be the bread-winner, and Echo would stay at home and cook for me. This would be the greatest happiness of my life.
Echo: We are still young. You are just a third-year student in senior high. How could you want to get married so badly?
Jose: I wanted to get married after I met you.
Jose: Are you sure you want to marry a rich guy?
Echo: If I don’t love him, I won’t marry him even though he’s a millionaire; but if I love him, I’ll still marry him if he’s a multi-millionaire.
Jose: sounds like you’re definitely gonna marry some rich guy.
Echo: Well, there are exceptions.
Jose: What about with me?
Echo: As long as you’ve got enough money to feed me.
Jose thought for a second: Do you eat a lot?
Echo answered very cautiously: no, no, not much. I can eat less in future.
Jose: Let’s get married.
Echo: My heart is broken.
Jose: We can glue the pieces together.
荷西：我的愿望是拥有一栋小小的公寓。我外出赚钱，Echo在家煮饭给我吃，这是我人生最快乐的事。
三毛：我们都还年轻，你也才高三，怎么就想结婚了呢？
荷西：我是碰到你之后才想结婚的。
荷西：你是不是一定要嫁个有钱人。
三毛：如果我不爱他，他是百万富翁我也不嫁，如果我爱他，他是千万富翁我也嫁。
荷西：。。。说来说去你还是要嫁有钱人。
三毛：也有例外的时候
荷西：如果跟我呢
三毛：那只要吃得饱的钱也算了
荷西思索了一下：你吃得多吗？
三毛十分小心的回答：不多，不多，以后还可以少吃点。
荷西：我们结婚吧
三毛：我的心已经碎了。
荷西：心碎了可以用胶水粘起来。
Jose: Echo, wait for me for six years. I’m going to spend four years in college and then serve in the military for two years. I’ll marry you in six years
Jose: I wish we’d own a small house. I’d be the bread-winner, and Echo would stay at home and cook for me. This would be the greatest happiness of my life.
Echo: We are still young. You are just a third-year student in senior high. How could you want to get married so badly?
Jose: I wanted to get married after I met you.
Jose: Are you sure you want to marry a rich guy?
Echo: If I don’t love him, I won’t marry him even though he’s a millionaire; but if I love him, I’ll still marry him if he’s a multi-millionaire.
Jose: sounds like you’re definitely gonna marry some rich guy.
Echo: Well, there are exceptions.
Jose: What about with me?
Echo: As long as you’ve got enough money to feed me.
Jose thought for a second: Do you eat a lot?
Echo answered very cautiously: no, no, not much. I can eat less in future.
Jose: Let’s get married.
Echo: My heart is broken.
Jose: We can glue the pieces together.
2010年4月26日星期一
時代的韓寒，韓寒的時代
Tims's Han Han, Han Han's Time
By Zhang Tiezhi
http://udn.com/NEWS/OPINION/OPI4/5559448.shtml
He used to be a rebellious teenager in the literary world, a STAR writer or a representative of the ‘80s writers. He has handsome looks; and he is a professional car racer. But now, he has become the most influential speaker of public opinions in China, and a model citizen who dares to speak the truths. Recently, he has been elected by Times magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
He is 28 years old; his name is Han Han.
More than 300 million hits on his blog
Han Han published his first novel Triple Gate （三重门）when he was 18 and aroused a so-called ‘Han Han Phenomenon’. Till now, the racking up sales of the novel has reached 2 million. From then on, he has constantly published a number of best-seller books, and has made greatly disputed statements. He started his blog writing in 2006 commenting on various social phenomena. Hits on his blog posts easily exceed a million. Up till early April, his webpage had been viewed 346 million times, which makes it the most widely read one in China.
Why does Han Han has such a great influence? Surely, one reason is that his sarcastic language is agreeable with young people and the dominant tone of the internet age. Wrapped in the sarcastic language, he is not a nihilist; he asserts his own values. He questions the lie told by the government institutes and the mainstream media; he challenges the authorities; and he has sympathy for those people living at the bottom of society. For example, he would take a ironic tone saying:
‘I sincerely hope that the government would forget about the glory brought by GDP…reduce their pressure in life, protect them, shelter them, and let them live with the slightest sense of self-esteem. If you lose these obedient citizens in the hands of starvation, sickness, poverty, compulsion, poison, food, indignation, injustice, water-drinking or plain sleeping, where are you going to find any citizens who are more obedient than them?’
Unveiled lies are plain common knowledge
Therefore, he is considered as the truth-telling child in The Emperor’s New Clothes. In contemporary China where it is predominated by absurdity and hypocrisy, he speaks out people inner voices, which are not enlightening remarks, but merely common knowledge. However, common knowledge, especially the part about the relationship between citizens and government is exactly the sharp sword that cuts out the lies of the times. Moreover, when a great many other established writers are enjoying the benefits provided by the system and have lost their writer’s critical role, Han Han appears to be extremely rare.
‘You'd wonder why cannot China become a big cultural power? That’s because when most of us are speaking, the cadres always come first, and the cadres are lacking in culture. At the same time, they are those who are scared of culture and censor the culture. So how could such a nation possibly become a big cultural power?’
As to his nomination for the 100 most influential people by Times magazine, he dropped his sarcasm and took on a sense of being powerless and tragic: ‘I often ask myself, what contributions I have made to this society filled with ‘screened words’. Maybe in the end, I will have only contributed another screened word named after my own name.’ ‘In China, influence usually entails power. Only those people who have the real power to let you die, let you live or make you half dead are truly powerful people.’
Struggling to tear down the walls under the spotlights
The 1980s and 1990s after the Opening-up and Reforming policy in China was the age of enlightenment, during which academic intellectuals played an important role. At present, the enlightening role they assumed has been abdicating gradually. After all, Chinese citizens have become more and more aware of their rights; but the government is still oppressing them, and the politics is still ridiculous. Therefore, the key is to stand up and fight for rights, or speak out the basic ideas. Havel once said that under post-centralized system, the only right those powerless people have is living in truth. Han Han does exercise the weapon of the powerless. The following remarks make him deserve to be elected as one of the top 100:
‘We are just nobodies on stage under the spotlights, but the theatre is possessed by those real influential powerful people who get to decide to drop the curtain down, shut the lights, cut the electricity, close the door and unleash the dogs at any time; then things become normal again with no traceable hints on what’s just happened. I just wish that these people would do the right thing with their influences on other people; and every single one on stage and maybe even those who helped build the theatre would be able to gradually tear down the high-standing walls and light bulbs. So when sunshine spreads in, no one can never ever crush out the brightness.’
By Zhang Tiezhi
http://udn.com/NEWS/OPINION/OPI4/5559448.shtml
He used to be a rebellious teenager in the literary world, a STAR writer or a representative of the ‘80s writers. He has handsome looks; and he is a professional car racer. But now, he has become the most influential speaker of public opinions in China, and a model citizen who dares to speak the truths. Recently, he has been elected by Times magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
He is 28 years old; his name is Han Han.
More than 300 million hits on his blog
Han Han published his first novel Triple Gate （三重门）when he was 18 and aroused a so-called ‘Han Han Phenomenon’. Till now, the racking up sales of the novel has reached 2 million. From then on, he has constantly published a number of best-seller books, and has made greatly disputed statements. He started his blog writing in 2006 commenting on various social phenomena. Hits on his blog posts easily exceed a million. Up till early April, his webpage had been viewed 346 million times, which makes it the most widely read one in China.
Why does Han Han has such a great influence? Surely, one reason is that his sarcastic language is agreeable with young people and the dominant tone of the internet age. Wrapped in the sarcastic language, he is not a nihilist; he asserts his own values. He questions the lie told by the government institutes and the mainstream media; he challenges the authorities; and he has sympathy for those people living at the bottom of society. For example, he would take a ironic tone saying:
‘I sincerely hope that the government would forget about the glory brought by GDP…reduce their pressure in life, protect them, shelter them, and let them live with the slightest sense of self-esteem. If you lose these obedient citizens in the hands of starvation, sickness, poverty, compulsion, poison, food, indignation, injustice, water-drinking or plain sleeping, where are you going to find any citizens who are more obedient than them?’
Unveiled lies are plain common knowledge
Therefore, he is considered as the truth-telling child in The Emperor’s New Clothes. In contemporary China where it is predominated by absurdity and hypocrisy, he speaks out people inner voices, which are not enlightening remarks, but merely common knowledge. However, common knowledge, especially the part about the relationship between citizens and government is exactly the sharp sword that cuts out the lies of the times. Moreover, when a great many other established writers are enjoying the benefits provided by the system and have lost their writer’s critical role, Han Han appears to be extremely rare.
‘You'd wonder why cannot China become a big cultural power? That’s because when most of us are speaking, the cadres always come first, and the cadres are lacking in culture. At the same time, they are those who are scared of culture and censor the culture. So how could such a nation possibly become a big cultural power?’
As to his nomination for the 100 most influential people by Times magazine, he dropped his sarcasm and took on a sense of being powerless and tragic: ‘I often ask myself, what contributions I have made to this society filled with ‘screened words’. Maybe in the end, I will have only contributed another screened word named after my own name.’ ‘In China, influence usually entails power. Only those people who have the real power to let you die, let you live or make you half dead are truly powerful people.’
Struggling to tear down the walls under the spotlights
The 1980s and 1990s after the Opening-up and Reforming policy in China was the age of enlightenment, during which academic intellectuals played an important role. At present, the enlightening role they assumed has been abdicating gradually. After all, Chinese citizens have become more and more aware of their rights; but the government is still oppressing them, and the politics is still ridiculous. Therefore, the key is to stand up and fight for rights, or speak out the basic ideas. Havel once said that under post-centralized system, the only right those powerless people have is living in truth. Han Han does exercise the weapon of the powerless. The following remarks make him deserve to be elected as one of the top 100:
‘We are just nobodies on stage under the spotlights, but the theatre is possessed by those real influential powerful people who get to decide to drop the curtain down, shut the lights, cut the electricity, close the door and unleash the dogs at any time; then things become normal again with no traceable hints on what’s just happened. I just wish that these people would do the right thing with their influences on other people; and every single one on stage and maybe even those who helped build the theatre would be able to gradually tear down the high-standing walls and light bulbs. So when sunshine spreads in, no one can never ever crush out the brightness.’
2010年4月25日星期日
網絡時代的咖啡館情結
Café complex in the Internet age
By Lin Fen
http://www.nbweekly.com/Print/Article/7400_0.shtml
Loneliness makes people long for the unloneliness in form. Cafés and the internet happen to provide us with the unloneliness in form. Apprehensions cause people to establish a bottom line for their demands for privacy. In cafés, we sit next to each other; while on the Internet, we have different IDs. Consequently, cafés, the private space inlaid in public space, appear to be more charming and attractive than pure private space.
In an age where friends are able to learn about every move you make via Internet, by indulging yourself in cafés, you seem to have labeled yourself as the legacy from pre-electronic age.
In the fascinating and confusing place, you are likely to encounter three types of people: firstly, the Only-socializing kind. For them, cafés are only a public place where they can meet friends. And this public place they need could be cafés, movie theatres, restaurants, or Facebook or Second Life.
Another type is the Convenience-comes-foremost kind. They go to cafés for a convenient short break. Wisteria Hut isn’t any different from Starbucks. For this kind, they can buy high quality coffee beans and brew aromatic coffee for themselves at home.
The third kind is those who are obsessed with cafés. They love to meet their friends or take a break there. They also often come alone reading or writing. It seems that there is some kind of magic spreading in the air in the coffee houses. These people have a dedicate taste on coffee; they are picky about the tables and chairs, and the table ware; they are picky about the music, the color of the paint on the wall; even picky about a total stranger under the eaves. In other peoples’ impression, they are those petty bourgeois who don’t want to spend 800,000 HKD on a house, but who’d rather pay 80 HKD for a taste of bitterness.
Personally, I’m not obsessed with coffee, but now and then an upsurge of longing for coffee aroma would emerge in my blood. Therefore, I’m labeled as the third kind by my friends.
Among a number of different styles of cafés, those located in the airport don’t have the classy taste, but it’s where I can write most efficiently. Seeing those passengers drifting from place to place like I do, I have a strong sense of sympathy, which makes me feel calm and settled. What makes me so infatuated with such space?
Is it the legend depicted by Habermas? In the 18th century’s Europe, inequality of social status between people retreated in the space of salons, cafés and tea houses. Rational reasoning was the basis for discussions. That so-called ‘public space for bourgeois’ became a place where citizens could participate in political affairs, and a transitional region between public authorities and individuals’ personal territory. The scent of the ink and the disagreements among people led to establishment of literary and artistic, then political, common territory.
However, in Habermas’ portrait, democracy bred in this space wasn’t able to avoid the destiny of its deterioration during the age of mass media: rationality was buried by profits; criticism was replaced by consumerism. During the television age, the liveliness in cafés lost its missionary rosiness it had several centuries earlier. It simply became a commodity.
Up till the electronic age, people in cafés just take their own spots and mind their own businesses, or just chat with friends via Internet. This public space seems to be in harmony with the early legend, but they are at variance, not to mention the possibility that everyone entering the room has the ambition that this very cup of coffee may bear some connections with an enormous institutional transformation in the future. That only exists in fantasies.
In this case, what does this space mean to individuals in this Internet age? Are coffee aroma and the convenience for meeting friends enough to maintain the loyalty of the third kind of people? What is the individuals’ psychological basis for this café culture that has lasted for centuries?
First of all, it’s the sense of privacy hiding in public space. Many of our behaviors can be attributed to two basis sentiments—loneliness and apprehension. Loneliness makes people long for the unloneliness in form. Cafés and the internet happen to provide us with the unloneliness in form. Apprehensions cause people to establish a bottom line for their demands for privacy. In cafés, we sit next to each other; while on the Internet, we have different IDs.
More importantly, in here, it’s possible that the boundary between public and private space can be pushed back and forth. You may see familiar strangers in a coffee house, just like I suddenly catch sight of half of a face with a déjà vu experience—it’s a playwright known as the wizard. I have read his writing, but never met him in person. Similarly, a unfamiliar ID may pop onto your computer screen and makes your thoughts wonder, but you still have the liberty to respond to it or not.
That kind of quick change in boundary makes the private space inlaid in public space more attractive and charm than pure private space. And this charm is rooted in the potential tension of one’s self-awareness. There are two parts of individuals’ self-awareness. One is the awareness of ‘who am I’, which focuses on the self in private space; the other is the awareness of ‘who should I be’ in other people’s perceptions, which concerns the self in public space. In self-awareness, the self and the alter ego don’t only co-exist, they might be conflicting with each other sometimes, which leads to our dependence on the space where the self and the alter ego can be tolerated, such as cafés and the Internet. It also influence the way we behave within that space.
Surely, the prerequisite for the charm is that the alteration between public and private space is not compelled by force. Therefore, either in cafés or on the Internet, individuals’ behaviors should be constrained by relevant law and regulations. Leisure centers are another example of voluntary alteration between public and private space. In there, a group of men and women, old or young, are dressed in pajamas in the same style and are arranged into the same look. In this kind of space, private space is publicized. The discrepancies in wealth, sex and skin color are simplified into the difference between blue color and red color. Maybe just because the external discrepancies are artificially eliminated, this place can truly become a space for leisure and relaxation.
To be concise, this psychological basis underlines the café complex; it also constructs the psychological basis of the Internet-oriented people. Convenient and fast technology can move real public space into a virtual world, and is able to reduce the rosy café culture into bare consumerism. However, what technology hasn’t changed, or what it’s unable to change, is the balance between the self and the alter ego hidden in every moment of daily life; is the non-stoppable tangling between public and private space in different forms; is the confrontation between individuals and the masses in every revolutionary age.
It’s true during the modernization process; it’s true during the globalization proceedings. It’s true for each individual; it’s true for every nation.
By Lin Fen
http://www.nbweekly.com/Print/Article/7400_0.shtml
Loneliness makes people long for the unloneliness in form. Cafés and the internet happen to provide us with the unloneliness in form. Apprehensions cause people to establish a bottom line for their demands for privacy. In cafés, we sit next to each other; while on the Internet, we have different IDs. Consequently, cafés, the private space inlaid in public space, appear to be more charming and attractive than pure private space.
In an age where friends are able to learn about every move you make via Internet, by indulging yourself in cafés, you seem to have labeled yourself as the legacy from pre-electronic age.
In the fascinating and confusing place, you are likely to encounter three types of people: firstly, the Only-socializing kind. For them, cafés are only a public place where they can meet friends. And this public place they need could be cafés, movie theatres, restaurants, or Facebook or Second Life.
Another type is the Convenience-comes-foremost kind. They go to cafés for a convenient short break. Wisteria Hut isn’t any different from Starbucks. For this kind, they can buy high quality coffee beans and brew aromatic coffee for themselves at home.
The third kind is those who are obsessed with cafés. They love to meet their friends or take a break there. They also often come alone reading or writing. It seems that there is some kind of magic spreading in the air in the coffee houses. These people have a dedicate taste on coffee; they are picky about the tables and chairs, and the table ware; they are picky about the music, the color of the paint on the wall; even picky about a total stranger under the eaves. In other peoples’ impression, they are those petty bourgeois who don’t want to spend 800,000 HKD on a house, but who’d rather pay 80 HKD for a taste of bitterness.
Personally, I’m not obsessed with coffee, but now and then an upsurge of longing for coffee aroma would emerge in my blood. Therefore, I’m labeled as the third kind by my friends.
Among a number of different styles of cafés, those located in the airport don’t have the classy taste, but it’s where I can write most efficiently. Seeing those passengers drifting from place to place like I do, I have a strong sense of sympathy, which makes me feel calm and settled. What makes me so infatuated with such space?
Is it the legend depicted by Habermas? In the 18th century’s Europe, inequality of social status between people retreated in the space of salons, cafés and tea houses. Rational reasoning was the basis for discussions. That so-called ‘public space for bourgeois’ became a place where citizens could participate in political affairs, and a transitional region between public authorities and individuals’ personal territory. The scent of the ink and the disagreements among people led to establishment of literary and artistic, then political, common territory.
However, in Habermas’ portrait, democracy bred in this space wasn’t able to avoid the destiny of its deterioration during the age of mass media: rationality was buried by profits; criticism was replaced by consumerism. During the television age, the liveliness in cafés lost its missionary rosiness it had several centuries earlier. It simply became a commodity.
Up till the electronic age, people in cafés just take their own spots and mind their own businesses, or just chat with friends via Internet. This public space seems to be in harmony with the early legend, but they are at variance, not to mention the possibility that everyone entering the room has the ambition that this very cup of coffee may bear some connections with an enormous institutional transformation in the future. That only exists in fantasies.
In this case, what does this space mean to individuals in this Internet age? Are coffee aroma and the convenience for meeting friends enough to maintain the loyalty of the third kind of people? What is the individuals’ psychological basis for this café culture that has lasted for centuries?
First of all, it’s the sense of privacy hiding in public space. Many of our behaviors can be attributed to two basis sentiments—loneliness and apprehension. Loneliness makes people long for the unloneliness in form. Cafés and the internet happen to provide us with the unloneliness in form. Apprehensions cause people to establish a bottom line for their demands for privacy. In cafés, we sit next to each other; while on the Internet, we have different IDs.
More importantly, in here, it’s possible that the boundary between public and private space can be pushed back and forth. You may see familiar strangers in a coffee house, just like I suddenly catch sight of half of a face with a déjà vu experience—it’s a playwright known as the wizard. I have read his writing, but never met him in person. Similarly, a unfamiliar ID may pop onto your computer screen and makes your thoughts wonder, but you still have the liberty to respond to it or not.
That kind of quick change in boundary makes the private space inlaid in public space more attractive and charm than pure private space. And this charm is rooted in the potential tension of one’s self-awareness. There are two parts of individuals’ self-awareness. One is the awareness of ‘who am I’, which focuses on the self in private space; the other is the awareness of ‘who should I be’ in other people’s perceptions, which concerns the self in public space. In self-awareness, the self and the alter ego don’t only co-exist, they might be conflicting with each other sometimes, which leads to our dependence on the space where the self and the alter ego can be tolerated, such as cafés and the Internet. It also influence the way we behave within that space.
Surely, the prerequisite for the charm is that the alteration between public and private space is not compelled by force. Therefore, either in cafés or on the Internet, individuals’ behaviors should be constrained by relevant law and regulations. Leisure centers are another example of voluntary alteration between public and private space. In there, a group of men and women, old or young, are dressed in pajamas in the same style and are arranged into the same look. In this kind of space, private space is publicized. The discrepancies in wealth, sex and skin color are simplified into the difference between blue color and red color. Maybe just because the external discrepancies are artificially eliminated, this place can truly become a space for leisure and relaxation.
To be concise, this psychological basis underlines the café complex; it also constructs the psychological basis of the Internet-oriented people. Convenient and fast technology can move real public space into a virtual world, and is able to reduce the rosy café culture into bare consumerism. However, what technology hasn’t changed, or what it’s unable to change, is the balance between the self and the alter ego hidden in every moment of daily life; is the non-stoppable tangling between public and private space in different forms; is the confrontation between individuals and the masses in every revolutionary age.
It’s true during the modernization process; it’s true during the globalization proceedings. It’s true for each individual; it’s true for every nation.
2010年4月24日星期六
要么杂种、要么绝种，没有纯种
http://www.my1510.cn/article.php?id=21c36aed00d54eb5
Hybrid or dead, no purebred
China’s State Administration for Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) has issued a set of regulations that prohibits the use of English initials. Their motives are not specified, but they have plenty of reasons, one of which is said to defend the purity of the Chinese language.
The attempt to defend the purity of a language is absolutely a stupid idea, and it’s not going to succeed anyway. Just like attempting to defend the women’s virginity, if the women of a nation all stayed as virgins, the nation would become extinct.
Hybrid vigor exists in biology. Same with a language. English, the most powerful language in the world, is said to come up with thousands of new words every year. The English language is screwed up by English speaking countries all over the world. However, just because of the ‘mating’, it’s become the most powerful language.
If the language of a nation becomes more and more impure, it just suggests that it’s becoming increasingly more powerful, which is an excellent thing one would wish for. If there were a SARFT in the UK, they wouldn’t be stupid enough to issue a regulation to forbid the use of English initials.
Vitality is dependent on hybrid. In this world, it’s either hybrid, or dead, never purebred.
People in China start learning English since they kindergarten. Up till graduation from college, English learning lasts for ten to twenty years. Why would you learn it if you don’t use it at all? After the opening-up and reform, along with the increasingly wider and deeper economical and cultural exchange, the chances for Chinese people to use English has been increasing as well. More and more English expressions have been integrated into the Chinese language. They’ve become conventional, and impossible to tear apart. Moreover, it is concise, convenient and fast to use English initials. What’s not good about it anyway?
Regarding the language inclusion of Chinese and English, some people are unhappy about it; some just fail to understand it. But we cannot cruelly deprive people of their rights to use English or English initials just because some people are unhappy about it or some people cannot understand it.
Being unhappy is just a personal feeling. I have nothing to say about it but being respectful. Let’s just take a look at the part of failing to understand:
As we all know, the majority of English initials are technical terms. Even though we transform those terms into Chinese, laymen still cannot understand them. For example, ‘HTTP’ means Hyper Text Transfer Protocol, ‘USB’ stands for Universal Serial BUS. May I ask, do non-professionals of computer sciences have the slightest idea about what they mean? Even though those terms are translated into Chinese, people still don’t understand them. What’s the point to forbid the use of English initials? Why don’t we just let those who understand English initials use them for free expressions?
Anyway, SARFT’s restrictions on the use of English initials may yield some results in a short term, but it won’t be effective in the long run. Such a thing as language is impossible to restrict. No force can prevent the tendency of the Chinese language integrating with foreign languages.
Because we live in an era of global integration.
In this era, different races, cultures, political systems, legal systems, customs, daily lives from all over the world, all aspects of human life, are seeking mutual acceptance and approaching Great Harmony. How can language possibly become an exception?
Hybrid or dead, no purebred
China’s State Administration for Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) has issued a set of regulations that prohibits the use of English initials. Their motives are not specified, but they have plenty of reasons, one of which is said to defend the purity of the Chinese language.
The attempt to defend the purity of a language is absolutely a stupid idea, and it’s not going to succeed anyway. Just like attempting to defend the women’s virginity, if the women of a nation all stayed as virgins, the nation would become extinct.
Hybrid vigor exists in biology. Same with a language. English, the most powerful language in the world, is said to come up with thousands of new words every year. The English language is screwed up by English speaking countries all over the world. However, just because of the ‘mating’, it’s become the most powerful language.
If the language of a nation becomes more and more impure, it just suggests that it’s becoming increasingly more powerful, which is an excellent thing one would wish for. If there were a SARFT in the UK, they wouldn’t be stupid enough to issue a regulation to forbid the use of English initials.
Vitality is dependent on hybrid. In this world, it’s either hybrid, or dead, never purebred.
People in China start learning English since they kindergarten. Up till graduation from college, English learning lasts for ten to twenty years. Why would you learn it if you don’t use it at all? After the opening-up and reform, along with the increasingly wider and deeper economical and cultural exchange, the chances for Chinese people to use English has been increasing as well. More and more English expressions have been integrated into the Chinese language. They’ve become conventional, and impossible to tear apart. Moreover, it is concise, convenient and fast to use English initials. What’s not good about it anyway?
Regarding the language inclusion of Chinese and English, some people are unhappy about it; some just fail to understand it. But we cannot cruelly deprive people of their rights to use English or English initials just because some people are unhappy about it or some people cannot understand it.
Being unhappy is just a personal feeling. I have nothing to say about it but being respectful. Let’s just take a look at the part of failing to understand:
As we all know, the majority of English initials are technical terms. Even though we transform those terms into Chinese, laymen still cannot understand them. For example, ‘HTTP’ means Hyper Text Transfer Protocol, ‘USB’ stands for Universal Serial BUS. May I ask, do non-professionals of computer sciences have the slightest idea about what they mean? Even though those terms are translated into Chinese, people still don’t understand them. What’s the point to forbid the use of English initials? Why don’t we just let those who understand English initials use them for free expressions?
Anyway, SARFT’s restrictions on the use of English initials may yield some results in a short term, but it won’t be effective in the long run. Such a thing as language is impossible to restrict. No force can prevent the tendency of the Chinese language integrating with foreign languages.
Because we live in an era of global integration.
In this era, different races, cultures, political systems, legal systems, customs, daily lives from all over the world, all aspects of human life, are seeking mutual acceptance and approaching Great Harmony. How can language possibly become an exception?
2010年4月23日星期五
Before Sunset review-A moment or a lifetime
The original article is published here: http://movie.douban.com/review/1463448/.
I'm just bored so that want to find something to do to kill time.
A moment, or a lifetime?
Foreword: Life is never perfect, but there are definitely wonderful moments and happiness. At least it’s true in this film. For me, it’s already a perfect dream. Everything could be foreseen, yet every single detail is out of expectation. It’s true that we all suffer from the pains that we can never run away from; and we are not able to escape from the contradiction between reality and love. However, passion and despair grow stronger along with each other. If there is this heartbeat and heartbreak in your life that you find impossible to escape from, then I am so jealous of you.
I read a review on the homepage yesterday, and I don’t like it at all. The author believed this is a tragedy, which made me bound to say something now, and I have to speak out now. This is not criticism, since there is no right and wrong. It’s just a matter of individuals’ attitudes toward life.
She says: After indulging in such an intoxicating love affair, one would become hollow inside, like a wandering spirit and a walking dead body.
But I believe that an impressive love affair won’t make you hollow, it completely converts you into a different person. The eye contact, the intimacy between two people in love, and spiritual communication, and meeting and knowing each other with the integration in body and mind, no matter how long they last, they are to become part of your memory long enough. And I do believe that if they are profound enough, they’d last for as long as a lifetime.
So, during the nine years they were apart, there were a lot going on in both their lives, but they are still passionate about life and longing for love. The world was a mess, and Celine didn’t believe it’s getting any better. But she got inspired by a cat every single day, and was able to see life from a different perspective. Jessie got married without muddleheadedly and had been trapped in a bland swirl and couldn’t get out. But when he saw his daughter, he was willing to give anything it takes. When they faced each other again, there were more grudges lying between them, so many that they had to cover it up by denying the night they spent together. But finally, Celine abreacted her indignation, so powerful yet at the same time so vulnerable. Jessie looked at her powerlessly, telling her about his dreams; Celine stretched out her hand attempting to touch him, just like the morning nine years ago. The sparkles, yes I saw sparkles again. Nine years later, they still melted away in their embraces.
She says: why did they choose to start it knowing it would end up in pain?
Painful. Yes, it’s the essence of life.
Prices. Yes, no pains, no gains.
But so what? Is there anyone who was happy once hasn’t tasted the heartfelt pains? To live, you cannot always run away from pains.
What I’m trying to say is that if we run away, we wouldn’t be able to love again. For me, if there is no love, there is no happiness. If you chose not re-climb the mountain just because you fell from the hillside, you would miss out the fun on the trip and the pleasure when reaching the top.
What we should do is ascend, get down, and ascend again.
Perfection is illusionary, just like Jessie’s life. There was a powerless dream hidden there, where he couldn’t seize the one he loved.
Perfection implies the loss of driving forces and passions. How can it be perfect when you’ve lost something? Reality has said it out loud, that they are all illusionary, don’t buy it. It’s just the integration of what happened.
Maybe they would part again, with the beautiful memories about each other and go back to their life track; maybe, they would stay together without giving a damn to the consequences and then life would become plain for them and may ultimately part again, or maybe something else would happen to them.
Anyway, if there is such a person in my life, such a person in the world, with whom I can share secrecy, and if there has been some romantic affair between us, and every countenance of him is so real, then I’d give up anything for it, no matter what it takes. Besides, fuck perfection.
I'm just bored so that want to find something to do to kill time.
A moment, or a lifetime?
Foreword: Life is never perfect, but there are definitely wonderful moments and happiness. At least it’s true in this film. For me, it’s already a perfect dream. Everything could be foreseen, yet every single detail is out of expectation. It’s true that we all suffer from the pains that we can never run away from; and we are not able to escape from the contradiction between reality and love. However, passion and despair grow stronger along with each other. If there is this heartbeat and heartbreak in your life that you find impossible to escape from, then I am so jealous of you.
I read a review on the homepage yesterday, and I don’t like it at all. The author believed this is a tragedy, which made me bound to say something now, and I have to speak out now. This is not criticism, since there is no right and wrong. It’s just a matter of individuals’ attitudes toward life.
She says: After indulging in such an intoxicating love affair, one would become hollow inside, like a wandering spirit and a walking dead body.
But I believe that an impressive love affair won’t make you hollow, it completely converts you into a different person. The eye contact, the intimacy between two people in love, and spiritual communication, and meeting and knowing each other with the integration in body and mind, no matter how long they last, they are to become part of your memory long enough. And I do believe that if they are profound enough, they’d last for as long as a lifetime.
So, during the nine years they were apart, there were a lot going on in both their lives, but they are still passionate about life and longing for love. The world was a mess, and Celine didn’t believe it’s getting any better. But she got inspired by a cat every single day, and was able to see life from a different perspective. Jessie got married without muddleheadedly and had been trapped in a bland swirl and couldn’t get out. But when he saw his daughter, he was willing to give anything it takes. When they faced each other again, there were more grudges lying between them, so many that they had to cover it up by denying the night they spent together. But finally, Celine abreacted her indignation, so powerful yet at the same time so vulnerable. Jessie looked at her powerlessly, telling her about his dreams; Celine stretched out her hand attempting to touch him, just like the morning nine years ago. The sparkles, yes I saw sparkles again. Nine years later, they still melted away in their embraces.
She says: why did they choose to start it knowing it would end up in pain?
Painful. Yes, it’s the essence of life.
Prices. Yes, no pains, no gains.
But so what? Is there anyone who was happy once hasn’t tasted the heartfelt pains? To live, you cannot always run away from pains.
What I’m trying to say is that if we run away, we wouldn’t be able to love again. For me, if there is no love, there is no happiness. If you chose not re-climb the mountain just because you fell from the hillside, you would miss out the fun on the trip and the pleasure when reaching the top.
What we should do is ascend, get down, and ascend again.
Perfection is illusionary, just like Jessie’s life. There was a powerless dream hidden there, where he couldn’t seize the one he loved.
Perfection implies the loss of driving forces and passions. How can it be perfect when you’ve lost something? Reality has said it out loud, that they are all illusionary, don’t buy it. It’s just the integration of what happened.
Maybe they would part again, with the beautiful memories about each other and go back to their life track; maybe, they would stay together without giving a damn to the consequences and then life would become plain for them and may ultimately part again, or maybe something else would happen to them.
Anyway, if there is such a person in my life, such a person in the world, with whom I can share secrecy, and if there has been some romantic affair between us, and every countenance of him is so real, then I’d give up anything for it, no matter what it takes. Besides, fuck perfection.
2010年4月22日星期四
Treasure your pains
像韩寒那样珍惜你的痛感
Treasure your pains as Han Han does
by commentator Xiao Shu
韩寒已经是美国 《时代》周刊2010年 “全球最具影响力人物”的候选人，而且在200名候选人中名列前茅。
Han Han is now one of the candidates for Times magazine’s ‘most influential people in the world’, and he is now coming out on top among all 200 candidates.
人们开始争论：可不可以说，韩寒已具有全球影响力？这个争论并没有意义。最需要韩寒的不是国际社会，而是他的同胞。所以，韩寒最需要的不是什么全球影响力，而是在中国的影响力。
People start discussing: can we say that Han Han has gained international influence? This discussion actually makes not much sense. The one who needs Han Han most is not the international community, but his fellow citizens. Thus, what he needs is not the so-called international influence, but the very influence he has in China.
就在前几天，广西合浦发生一起惨案，凶手在小学放学途中追杀妇孺，致二死五伤。
Several days ago, a tragic murder case happened in Hepu, Guangxi Province, where the murderer chased after children and women around a primary school right after the students were being dismissed, leaving two dead and five injured.
而在合浦惨案之前，福建刚刚发生郑民生凶杀案。郑民生这个恶魔，仅仅因为所谓不满现实，就计划要杀掉三十多个孩子来报复社会。虽未完全得手，但仍有八个可怜的孩子死在他的刀下。
And right before the Hepu case, another murder case just happened in Fujian Province. Ferocious Zheng Minsheng planned to kill more than 30 children to take revenge against the society only because he was unsatisfied with the reality. He didn’t accomplish his whole plan, but two innocent poor kids went dead under his blade.
孩子是一个民族的未来，应该受到最严格的保护。但在我们的社会中，恰恰是孩子最受伤。被问题疫苗伤害的主要是孩子，被问题奶粉伤害的主要是孩子，被豆腐渣建筑伤害的主要是孩子。现在，歹徒报复社会的对象竟然也主要是孩子。有人说郑民生有精神病；合浦惨案后，地方当局也说凶手有精神病。其实受伤孩子那么多，有病的何止一两个凶手。
Children are the future of a nation, and they deserve to be rigorously protected. However, in our society, children tend to get hurt more often. In the defective vaccine case, in the milk powder and in the shoddy construction case, children are the ones that take most of the consequences. Now, children have even become the major sufferers of the outlaws’ revenge against society. Some say Zheng Minsheng is a psycho; in the Hepu murder case, local authority claimed that the criminal had mental disorders. There have been so many kids getting hurt, and the number of psychopaths is far more than two.
不错，我们的国家依然强大，而且越来越强大。但国家强大不是万应灵药。现在就一方面是经济总量在不断增长；但另一方面，社会溃烂的势头仍难遏制，以致孩子成了受害者，以致外媒都在惊呼：社会转型不要以孩子为代价。
It’s true that our nation is still powerful, as a matter of fact, it’s becoming increasingly more powerful. But the power a nation has is not a panacea. On one hand, our GDP has been constantly increasing; while on the other hand, the tendency of social deterioration stays difficult to fight against, and consequently, so many children have become its victims that foreign media are exclaiming: don’t proceed social transition at the expense of children’s benefit.
所以韩寒在中国的影响力才最重要。这是因为，我们不仅需要国家的强大，我们还需要——甚至更需要——公民社会。而韩寒则是公民标本。
It makes significant Han Han’s domestic influence. It’s because that what we need is not only the mightiness of our country, but also a civil society—maybe we need this more than the other. And Han Han is a civil model.
韩寒现在的地位无疑蒸蒸日上。但也有人不服气：韩寒有什么了不起？深刻不如鲁迅，智慧不如胡适，高尚不如德兰修女，壮烈不如林昭、张志新。的确，相比于中外先贤，韩寒太普通了，普通得跟我们每个人几乎一模一样。但这才是韩寒最有力量的地方，他越是普通，他就越有普遍性，就越是可以推广。他具备的很多元素，的确都平常，的确我们都具备。说到底他无非比我们多了一样东西，那就是公民的气质，那就是率性，那就是真实。
There is no doubt that Han Han’s status has been rising. But some people are not convinced: what’s good of him? He is not thinking as profoundly as Lu Xun, not as wise as Hu Shi, not as noble as Mother Teresa, and not as brave and honorable as Lin Zhan and Zhang Zhixin. Indeed, compared with sages of the past all over the world, Han Han is way too ordinary, almost as ordinary as every single one of us. However, this is exactly where his power lies. The more ordinary he seems, the more commonality he stands for, and the more applicable he is. Many elements he possesses are indeed quite common, and we are all equipped with those elements. After all, he has only one more quality than us—the civil temperament. It’s natural disposition and staying real.
正是率性而真实的公民气质，使韩寒能够自由言说，说出自己在这个社会中的痛感。这痛感犹如盐，不需太多，就那么一点点，他的境界就跟我们迥然不同了。他自由地言说，爱他所爱，恨他所恨，但是有代价吗？有不能承受之重吗？没有。这说明无奈无论怎样深重，也没到我们想象的程度，我们不必自己吓自己。
It’s just the natural and real civil temperament of him that makes him able to speak freely, to speak out his pains in this society. The pain is like salt, which we don’t need a lot, but just a bit of it makes him reach a higher level than us. He speaks what he wants to speak, loves what he loves, hate what he hates, but is there any price he has to pay? Is there any unbearable weight he has to carry? No. It’s telling us that no matter how intolerable it is, it’s not reached the level we imagine, and we don’t have to scared.
看看韩寒，多爽朗，多快乐，多阳光。他说出他的痛感，但他无须浸淫在悲苦之中，无须那么愁云惨淡。病往往都是憋出来的，韩寒不憋，韩寒不委屈自己，他说出来了，说出来他就得救了，他就有尊严了，他就健康了。就可以作为一个正常人，享受他的尊严，享受他的健康，享受他的正常的生活了。
Look at him. How cheerful, joyful and bright. He tells his pains, but he doesn’t have to be immerged in the sorrow and pain; he doesn’t have to be miserable. Sickness usually comes from holding back the feelings. Han Han doesn’t hold his feelings back; he doesn’t suppress his feelings; he speaks it out. And he is rescued; he defends his dignity; he is healthy. He is able to enjoy his dignity, his healthiness and his normal life, as a normal person would do.
这正是公民社会的旨趣所在。它不是要对抗什么，不是要反叛什么，不是要颠覆什么。它不过是一个一个人的自我救治，不过是一个一个社会细胞的自我修复。不是外科切除，而是精确改良，微观演进，用新生命的生长遏制社会的溃烂。这之于我们可能是最现实也最可行的选择。先贤对我们来说固然重要，他们昭示着人类可能达到的精神高度。但先贤跟我们实在落差太大，我们往往没有献身的勇气，心向往而实不能至。但没关系，韩寒就在我们眼前，我们学韩寒就可以了。韩寒无非比我们高出半个头，至多一个头。我们使劲往上跳一跳，甚至只需要踮踮脚尖，也能达到跟他一样的高度。那么，我们何乐不为？
That is exactly where the purpose and joy of a civil society lie. It’s not about fighting against something, not about being rebellious of something, and not about subverting something. It’s merely self-salvation of every single person, and self-healing of every single social cell. It’s not surgical excision, but precise modification and micro-evolution; it’s about constraining social damages with the growing new life. For us, it’s probably the most realistic and feasible option. Sages of the past are certainly important to us, since they made clear to us the spiritual level human kind can possibly reach. But they are too distant from us, and we usually don’t have the courage to devote ourselves into the undertakings, so we cannot reach their level even thought we yearn for it. But the good thing is, Han Han is right in sight. We can easily learn something from him. He may be just one step ahead of us, two steps at most. We could catch up with him by simply taking a leap. Why not give it a try?
像韩寒那样，珍惜你的痛感，珍惜你喊痛的权利，使韩寒成为潮流，成为时尚。如此，我们的社会才没有那么多丧心病狂的精神病杀手，我们才救得了孩子，救得了我们自己。
Treasure your pains like Han Han does with his. Treasure your rights to cry out of your pains, and see Han Han as a trend and fashion. In this way, we won’t have as many lunatic psychopath killers in the society. Only in this way, we can save the children, and ourselves.
South Weekend
Link: http://www.infzm.com/content/43823
Treasure your pains as Han Han does
by commentator Xiao Shu
韩寒已经是美国 《时代》周刊2010年 “全球最具影响力人物”的候选人，而且在200名候选人中名列前茅。
Han Han is now one of the candidates for Times magazine’s ‘most influential people in the world’, and he is now coming out on top among all 200 candidates.
人们开始争论：可不可以说，韩寒已具有全球影响力？这个争论并没有意义。最需要韩寒的不是国际社会，而是他的同胞。所以，韩寒最需要的不是什么全球影响力，而是在中国的影响力。
People start discussing: can we say that Han Han has gained international influence? This discussion actually makes not much sense. The one who needs Han Han most is not the international community, but his fellow citizens. Thus, what he needs is not the so-called international influence, but the very influence he has in China.
就在前几天，广西合浦发生一起惨案，凶手在小学放学途中追杀妇孺，致二死五伤。
Several days ago, a tragic murder case happened in Hepu, Guangxi Province, where the murderer chased after children and women around a primary school right after the students were being dismissed, leaving two dead and five injured.
而在合浦惨案之前，福建刚刚发生郑民生凶杀案。郑民生这个恶魔，仅仅因为所谓不满现实，就计划要杀掉三十多个孩子来报复社会。虽未完全得手，但仍有八个可怜的孩子死在他的刀下。
And right before the Hepu case, another murder case just happened in Fujian Province. Ferocious Zheng Minsheng planned to kill more than 30 children to take revenge against the society only because he was unsatisfied with the reality. He didn’t accomplish his whole plan, but two innocent poor kids went dead under his blade.
孩子是一个民族的未来，应该受到最严格的保护。但在我们的社会中，恰恰是孩子最受伤。被问题疫苗伤害的主要是孩子，被问题奶粉伤害的主要是孩子，被豆腐渣建筑伤害的主要是孩子。现在，歹徒报复社会的对象竟然也主要是孩子。有人说郑民生有精神病；合浦惨案后，地方当局也说凶手有精神病。其实受伤孩子那么多，有病的何止一两个凶手。
Children are the future of a nation, and they deserve to be rigorously protected. However, in our society, children tend to get hurt more often. In the defective vaccine case, in the milk powder and in the shoddy construction case, children are the ones that take most of the consequences. Now, children have even become the major sufferers of the outlaws’ revenge against society. Some say Zheng Minsheng is a psycho; in the Hepu murder case, local authority claimed that the criminal had mental disorders. There have been so many kids getting hurt, and the number of psychopaths is far more than two.
不错，我们的国家依然强大，而且越来越强大。但国家强大不是万应灵药。现在就一方面是经济总量在不断增长；但另一方面，社会溃烂的势头仍难遏制，以致孩子成了受害者，以致外媒都在惊呼：社会转型不要以孩子为代价。
It’s true that our nation is still powerful, as a matter of fact, it’s becoming increasingly more powerful. But the power a nation has is not a panacea. On one hand, our GDP has been constantly increasing; while on the other hand, the tendency of social deterioration stays difficult to fight against, and consequently, so many children have become its victims that foreign media are exclaiming: don’t proceed social transition at the expense of children’s benefit.
所以韩寒在中国的影响力才最重要。这是因为，我们不仅需要国家的强大，我们还需要——甚至更需要——公民社会。而韩寒则是公民标本。
It makes significant Han Han’s domestic influence. It’s because that what we need is not only the mightiness of our country, but also a civil society—maybe we need this more than the other. And Han Han is a civil model.
韩寒现在的地位无疑蒸蒸日上。但也有人不服气：韩寒有什么了不起？深刻不如鲁迅，智慧不如胡适，高尚不如德兰修女，壮烈不如林昭、张志新。的确，相比于中外先贤，韩寒太普通了，普通得跟我们每个人几乎一模一样。但这才是韩寒最有力量的地方，他越是普通，他就越有普遍性，就越是可以推广。他具备的很多元素，的确都平常，的确我们都具备。说到底他无非比我们多了一样东西，那就是公民的气质，那就是率性，那就是真实。
There is no doubt that Han Han’s status has been rising. But some people are not convinced: what’s good of him? He is not thinking as profoundly as Lu Xun, not as wise as Hu Shi, not as noble as Mother Teresa, and not as brave and honorable as Lin Zhan and Zhang Zhixin. Indeed, compared with sages of the past all over the world, Han Han is way too ordinary, almost as ordinary as every single one of us. However, this is exactly where his power lies. The more ordinary he seems, the more commonality he stands for, and the more applicable he is. Many elements he possesses are indeed quite common, and we are all equipped with those elements. After all, he has only one more quality than us—the civil temperament. It’s natural disposition and staying real.
正是率性而真实的公民气质，使韩寒能够自由言说，说出自己在这个社会中的痛感。这痛感犹如盐，不需太多，就那么一点点，他的境界就跟我们迥然不同了。他自由地言说，爱他所爱，恨他所恨，但是有代价吗？有不能承受之重吗？没有。这说明无奈无论怎样深重，也没到我们想象的程度，我们不必自己吓自己。
It’s just the natural and real civil temperament of him that makes him able to speak freely, to speak out his pains in this society. The pain is like salt, which we don’t need a lot, but just a bit of it makes him reach a higher level than us. He speaks what he wants to speak, loves what he loves, hate what he hates, but is there any price he has to pay? Is there any unbearable weight he has to carry? No. It’s telling us that no matter how intolerable it is, it’s not reached the level we imagine, and we don’t have to scared.
看看韩寒，多爽朗，多快乐，多阳光。他说出他的痛感，但他无须浸淫在悲苦之中，无须那么愁云惨淡。病往往都是憋出来的，韩寒不憋，韩寒不委屈自己，他说出来了，说出来他就得救了，他就有尊严了，他就健康了。就可以作为一个正常人，享受他的尊严，享受他的健康，享受他的正常的生活了。
Look at him. How cheerful, joyful and bright. He tells his pains, but he doesn’t have to be immerged in the sorrow and pain; he doesn’t have to be miserable. Sickness usually comes from holding back the feelings. Han Han doesn’t hold his feelings back; he doesn’t suppress his feelings; he speaks it out. And he is rescued; he defends his dignity; he is healthy. He is able to enjoy his dignity, his healthiness and his normal life, as a normal person would do.
这正是公民社会的旨趣所在。它不是要对抗什么，不是要反叛什么，不是要颠覆什么。它不过是一个一个人的自我救治，不过是一个一个社会细胞的自我修复。不是外科切除，而是精确改良，微观演进，用新生命的生长遏制社会的溃烂。这之于我们可能是最现实也最可行的选择。先贤对我们来说固然重要，他们昭示着人类可能达到的精神高度。但先贤跟我们实在落差太大，我们往往没有献身的勇气，心向往而实不能至。但没关系，韩寒就在我们眼前，我们学韩寒就可以了。韩寒无非比我们高出半个头，至多一个头。我们使劲往上跳一跳，甚至只需要踮踮脚尖，也能达到跟他一样的高度。那么，我们何乐不为？
That is exactly where the purpose and joy of a civil society lie. It’s not about fighting against something, not about being rebellious of something, and not about subverting something. It’s merely self-salvation of every single person, and self-healing of every single social cell. It’s not surgical excision, but precise modification and micro-evolution; it’s about constraining social damages with the growing new life. For us, it’s probably the most realistic and feasible option. Sages of the past are certainly important to us, since they made clear to us the spiritual level human kind can possibly reach. But they are too distant from us, and we usually don’t have the courage to devote ourselves into the undertakings, so we cannot reach their level even thought we yearn for it. But the good thing is, Han Han is right in sight. We can easily learn something from him. He may be just one step ahead of us, two steps at most. We could catch up with him by simply taking a leap. Why not give it a try?
像韩寒那样，珍惜你的痛感，珍惜你喊痛的权利，使韩寒成为潮流，成为时尚。如此，我们的社会才没有那么多丧心病狂的精神病杀手，我们才救得了孩子，救得了我们自己。
Treasure your pains like Han Han does with his. Treasure your rights to cry out of your pains, and see Han Han as a trend and fashion. In this way, we won’t have as many lunatic psychopath killers in the society. Only in this way, we can save the children, and ourselves.
South Weekend
Link: http://www.infzm.com/content/43823
Killing time
There hasn't been much going on since I came back to Beijing. I just stayed in for most of the time editing my thesis, but more time is being spent in killing time because I hate to take another look at it.
It's funny that I missed Beijing, missed the friends, the acquaintances, the dry climate, the smell of Beijing and even the sand storm in spring, sooooo much when I was in Nanjing. I guess the things I missed most are just the feeling that you have control of your own life. And now I feel I have lost it again.
It's funny that I missed Beijing, missed the friends, the acquaintances, the dry climate, the smell of Beijing and even the sand storm in spring, sooooo much when I was in Nanjing. I guess the things I missed most are just the feeling that you have control of your own life. And now I feel I have lost it again.
2010年4月11日星期日
A blog article of Han Han
散文一篇
An essay
在昨天，我看到了一条新闻，新闻说我候选了时代周刊的两百个影响全球的人物，中国同时入选的还有敏感词，敏感词和敏感词等人。当时我正在我们村里挖笋（我挖的是自己家的），没怎么注意，后来回去一看手机上有不少的短信，问我对此事的态度，我只回复了新京报和南都的两位朋友，其他媒体写的均为凭着对我性格的猜测下的友好想象。我没有想到大家还比较关心，在这里我就做一个统一的回复。
Yesterday, I say a piece of news saying that I was nominated as one of the 200 [it’s in fact 100]most influential people in the world by Time magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1972075_1972078_1972568,00.html]Other Chinese nominees included ‘screened word’, ‘screened word’ and ‘screened word’. I was digging bamboo shoots in our village then (and I digged my own bamboo shoots) and did not pay much attention. When I got back home, I found quite a number of text messages asking for my attitudes toward this matter. I only replied two [journalist] friends from The Beijing News and Southern Metropolis Weekly; any articles published on other media are merely friendly impressions based on their hypothesis about my characters. I did not expect such attentions from the mass public, but I’ll make an integrated response here.
首先，我非常感叹和惋惜，为什么别人有这样的新闻媒体，当时代周刊弄一个人物榜的评选的时候，能够让全世界其他的国家都起波澜。我多么渴望我们中国也能有类似的一个新闻媒体，当他评选人物的时候，在全世界也引起关注。我们不能说这样的一个媒体完全公正，但是它是有完全的公信力的，我多么渴望我们国家也有。可惜我们并没有。不是说我们的媒体人要比其他地方的媒体人差，而是因为一些……原因，这些原因众所周知，点到为止，多说必死，死后鞭尸。
First of all, I’m overwhelmed by exclamations and shames. Why could such a news media like Time magazine exist in other countries that it produces ripples in every other country all over the world when a Top People vote is initiated. I’m dying to see a similar news media in China when it starts a Top People vote, the whole world would pay attention. We cannot say such a media is absolutely impartial, but it has total public credibility. I anxiously hope that we have such a media in China, but unfortunately, we don’t. I doesn’t mean our media people are not as qualified as those in other countries. There are certain reasons, which are known to all. I’m not digging up on it here. Otherwise it’ll bring me tons of trouble.
我经常自问自己，我为这个充满着敏感词的社会做出了什么贡献，可能到最后我只贡献了一个以我的名字命名的敏感词而已。我天天睡到中午，经常浪费钱买数码产品，还挑食，但好在我也未曾给这个社会增加罪孽和负担，至少迄今为止是这样。我没有辽阔的远见，我唯独只想让相关部门善待文艺和新闻，不要给他们过多的审查以及限制，不要用政府的权利和国家名义去封杀或者污蔑任何一个文艺工作者和新闻从业者，这样的话，不用你们花大价钱，这个国家会自动生产出输出到西方世界的文艺作品和新闻媒体，我们的每一个小小的读者听众观众网民市民国民都能同享荣光。我未必有天赋和能力写出好的东西，但是别人有，但你不要阉人有[又]夸人无。
I often ask myself, what have I contributed to this society filled with ‘screened words’? Maybe ultimately just another screened word consisting of my very own name. Every single day, I sleep till noon; I often wasted money on digital products; I am a picky eater. But fortunately I haven’t brought extra sins and burdens to this society; at least it’s the case so far. I don’t have wide-scale insights; I just hope that those authorities concerned could treat literature and art and news with mercy, instead of imposing excessive censorship and restrictions on them, or forcing out or slandering any literature/art worker or media worker in the name of the government authority or the nation. If so, this country would automatically generate literary/art works and news media that would get exported to western world without the expensive nurturing from the government. And as a result, every single reader, listener, audience, netizen, city resident and citizen can share the glory. I may not necessarily be very talented and competent to write brilliant stuff, but other people are. So don’t you emasculate them and boast of their non-existence. [I cannot do the irony here]
电话里记者问我，有一些地方还说你和西方反华势力勾结，我说这个很正常，人家这招用了六十年了，前几十年还有发自内心的，后几十年纯粹是用于泼脏水了。我一个要去西方国家比赛经常因为材料不够齐而差点签证都办不出来的人，还西方势力呢，况且都什么年代了，还勾结不勾结的，这词说出去多难听啊。相信如果有哪位朋友天天监听着我的电话的话，您一定很清楚我究竟是一个怎么样的人，您说呢，电脑前一定会有一位朋友会心一笑的。但我只是奇怪，这些御用笔杆子，怎么几十年都用一个体位，他不烦，对象都烦了。但是，我坚决赞同他们的存在，因为总有正方和反方，总有甲方和乙方，如果我们国家能做到话不投机一拍两散，而不是话不投机把你封杀，那就是我们国家的巨大进步，我们也将为此而努力。
Some journalist said on the phone: some [from government authorities?] say that you are ganging up with western anti-China forces. I replied that it is pretty common. They have used this trick for sixty years. It was authentic during the first several decades; but during the last few decades, it’s purely slandering. I used to fail to get visas because of missing of certain documents when I was planning to attend car racing games in western countries; what’s with the ganging up? Besides, why are we still talking about ganging up with people during this modern age? The phrase is such an eye sore. I believe if there is a friend tapping into my phone calls on a daily base, they must know what kind of people I am, what do you think? There must be a friend smiling with understanding in front of the computer screen. But I’m just curious, those kept writers have been using one body position for decades; even though they are not fed up with it, the objects are. However, I’m totally in favor of their existence, since affirmative/negative sides and Party A/B always exist co-dependently. When under the circumstance of disagreements, if our nation is capable of tolerating them taking separating paths instead of forcing the other side out, then it’s a great step forward. We will be making great efforts on it as well.
后来他又发短信问我，那么换句话说，你这个人的观点和言论符合了西方人的价值观，你觉得是么？
Later on, he texted me again and asked: in other words, your personal opinions and statements are in accordance with western values, do you think so?
我回消息说，难道不符合中国人的价值观么？
I replied: Are they not in accordance with Chinese values?
我相信地球人和外星人也许价值观不一样，但是西方人和东方人，除了生活习惯不一样以外，价值观应该是差不多的，为何一定要争呢。
I believe that earthmen aliens may have different values, but except for life habits, western and oriental people have similar values. Why do we have to alienate us from one another?
最后说回到所谓的影响力，我经常非常的惭愧，我只是一介书生，也许我的文章让人解气，但除此以外又有什么呢，那虚无缥缈的影响力？在中国，影响力往往就是权力，那些翻云覆雨手，那些让你死，让你活，让你不死不活的人，他们才是真正有影响力的人。但是不知道是因为他们怕搜呢还是不经搜，往往在搜索引擎上还搜不到他们。我们只是站在这个舞台上被灯光照着的小人物。但是这个剧场归他们所有，他们可以随时让这个舞台落下帷幕，熄灭灯光，切断电闸，关门放狗，最后狗过天晴，一切都无迹可寻。我只是希望这些人，真正的善待自己的影响力，而我们每一个舞台上的人，甚至能有当年建造这个剧场的人，争取把四面的高墙和灯泡都慢慢拆除，当阳光洒进来的时候，那种光明，将再也没有人能摁灭。
Finally, back to the so called influence issue. I often feel ashamed. I’m just a writer. Maybe what I write is sympathetic to many readers and speaks out their rages, but what else can I do? The visionary ‘influence’ I have? In China, influences are usually realized by power. The real influential people are those almighty hands, those people who have a say on your destiny. But I’m not sure if they are afraid to be searched online or just cannot stand up to be searched online, you cannot get any results on the search engines. We are just nobodies on stage under the spotlights, but the theatre is possessed by those real influential powerful people who get to decide to drop the curtain down, shut the lights, cut the electricity, close the door and unleash the dogs at any time; then things become normal again with no traceable hints on what’s just happened. I just wish that these people would do the right thing with their influences on other people; and every single one on stage and maybe even those who helped build the theatre would be able to gradually tear down the high-standing walls and light bulbs. So when sunshine spreads in, no one can never ever crush out the brightness.
An essay
在昨天，我看到了一条新闻，新闻说我候选了时代周刊的两百个影响全球的人物，中国同时入选的还有敏感词，敏感词和敏感词等人。当时我正在我们村里挖笋（我挖的是自己家的），没怎么注意，后来回去一看手机上有不少的短信，问我对此事的态度，我只回复了新京报和南都的两位朋友，其他媒体写的均为凭着对我性格的猜测下的友好想象。我没有想到大家还比较关心，在这里我就做一个统一的回复。
Yesterday, I say a piece of news saying that I was nominated as one of the 200 [it’s in fact 100]most influential people in the world by Time magazine. [http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1972075_1972078_1972568,00.html]Other Chinese nominees included ‘screened word’, ‘screened word’ and ‘screened word’. I was digging bamboo shoots in our village then (and I digged my own bamboo shoots) and did not pay much attention. When I got back home, I found quite a number of text messages asking for my attitudes toward this matter. I only replied two [journalist] friends from The Beijing News and Southern Metropolis Weekly; any articles published on other media are merely friendly impressions based on their hypothesis about my characters. I did not expect such attentions from the mass public, but I’ll make an integrated response here.
首先，我非常感叹和惋惜，为什么别人有这样的新闻媒体，当时代周刊弄一个人物榜的评选的时候，能够让全世界其他的国家都起波澜。我多么渴望我们中国也能有类似的一个新闻媒体，当他评选人物的时候，在全世界也引起关注。我们不能说这样的一个媒体完全公正，但是它是有完全的公信力的，我多么渴望我们国家也有。可惜我们并没有。不是说我们的媒体人要比其他地方的媒体人差，而是因为一些……原因，这些原因众所周知，点到为止，多说必死，死后鞭尸。
First of all, I’m overwhelmed by exclamations and shames. Why could such a news media like Time magazine exist in other countries that it produces ripples in every other country all over the world when a Top People vote is initiated. I’m dying to see a similar news media in China when it starts a Top People vote, the whole world would pay attention. We cannot say such a media is absolutely impartial, but it has total public credibility. I anxiously hope that we have such a media in China, but unfortunately, we don’t. I doesn’t mean our media people are not as qualified as those in other countries. There are certain reasons, which are known to all. I’m not digging up on it here. Otherwise it’ll bring me tons of trouble.
我经常自问自己，我为这个充满着敏感词的社会做出了什么贡献，可能到最后我只贡献了一个以我的名字命名的敏感词而已。我天天睡到中午，经常浪费钱买数码产品，还挑食，但好在我也未曾给这个社会增加罪孽和负担，至少迄今为止是这样。我没有辽阔的远见，我唯独只想让相关部门善待文艺和新闻，不要给他们过多的审查以及限制，不要用政府的权利和国家名义去封杀或者污蔑任何一个文艺工作者和新闻从业者，这样的话，不用你们花大价钱，这个国家会自动生产出输出到西方世界的文艺作品和新闻媒体，我们的每一个小小的读者听众观众网民市民国民都能同享荣光。我未必有天赋和能力写出好的东西，但是别人有，但你不要阉人有[又]夸人无。
I often ask myself, what have I contributed to this society filled with ‘screened words’? Maybe ultimately just another screened word consisting of my very own name. Every single day, I sleep till noon; I often wasted money on digital products; I am a picky eater. But fortunately I haven’t brought extra sins and burdens to this society; at least it’s the case so far. I don’t have wide-scale insights; I just hope that those authorities concerned could treat literature and art and news with mercy, instead of imposing excessive censorship and restrictions on them, or forcing out or slandering any literature/art worker or media worker in the name of the government authority or the nation. If so, this country would automatically generate literary/art works and news media that would get exported to western world without the expensive nurturing from the government. And as a result, every single reader, listener, audience, netizen, city resident and citizen can share the glory. I may not necessarily be very talented and competent to write brilliant stuff, but other people are. So don’t you emasculate them and boast of their non-existence. [I cannot do the irony here]
电话里记者问我，有一些地方还说你和西方反华势力勾结，我说这个很正常，人家这招用了六十年了，前几十年还有发自内心的，后几十年纯粹是用于泼脏水了。我一个要去西方国家比赛经常因为材料不够齐而差点签证都办不出来的人，还西方势力呢，况且都什么年代了，还勾结不勾结的，这词说出去多难听啊。相信如果有哪位朋友天天监听着我的电话的话，您一定很清楚我究竟是一个怎么样的人，您说呢，电脑前一定会有一位朋友会心一笑的。但我只是奇怪，这些御用笔杆子，怎么几十年都用一个体位，他不烦，对象都烦了。但是，我坚决赞同他们的存在，因为总有正方和反方，总有甲方和乙方，如果我们国家能做到话不投机一拍两散，而不是话不投机把你封杀，那就是我们国家的巨大进步，我们也将为此而努力。
Some journalist said on the phone: some [from government authorities?] say that you are ganging up with western anti-China forces. I replied that it is pretty common. They have used this trick for sixty years. It was authentic during the first several decades; but during the last few decades, it’s purely slandering. I used to fail to get visas because of missing of certain documents when I was planning to attend car racing games in western countries; what’s with the ganging up? Besides, why are we still talking about ganging up with people during this modern age? The phrase is such an eye sore. I believe if there is a friend tapping into my phone calls on a daily base, they must know what kind of people I am, what do you think? There must be a friend smiling with understanding in front of the computer screen. But I’m just curious, those kept writers have been using one body position for decades; even though they are not fed up with it, the objects are. However, I’m totally in favor of their existence, since affirmative/negative sides and Party A/B always exist co-dependently. When under the circumstance of disagreements, if our nation is capable of tolerating them taking separating paths instead of forcing the other side out, then it’s a great step forward. We will be making great efforts on it as well.
后来他又发短信问我，那么换句话说，你这个人的观点和言论符合了西方人的价值观，你觉得是么？
Later on, he texted me again and asked: in other words, your personal opinions and statements are in accordance with western values, do you think so?
我回消息说，难道不符合中国人的价值观么？
I replied: Are they not in accordance with Chinese values?
我相信地球人和外星人也许价值观不一样，但是西方人和东方人，除了生活习惯不一样以外，价值观应该是差不多的，为何一定要争呢。
I believe that earthmen aliens may have different values, but except for life habits, western and oriental people have similar values. Why do we have to alienate us from one another?
最后说回到所谓的影响力，我经常非常的惭愧，我只是一介书生，也许我的文章让人解气，但除此以外又有什么呢，那虚无缥缈的影响力？在中国，影响力往往就是权力，那些翻云覆雨手，那些让你死，让你活，让你不死不活的人，他们才是真正有影响力的人。但是不知道是因为他们怕搜呢还是不经搜，往往在搜索引擎上还搜不到他们。我们只是站在这个舞台上被灯光照着的小人物。但是这个剧场归他们所有，他们可以随时让这个舞台落下帷幕，熄灭灯光，切断电闸，关门放狗，最后狗过天晴，一切都无迹可寻。我只是希望这些人，真正的善待自己的影响力，而我们每一个舞台上的人，甚至能有当年建造这个剧场的人，争取把四面的高墙和灯泡都慢慢拆除，当阳光洒进来的时候，那种光明，将再也没有人能摁灭。
Finally, back to the so called influence issue. I often feel ashamed. I’m just a writer. Maybe what I write is sympathetic to many readers and speaks out their rages, but what else can I do? The visionary ‘influence’ I have? In China, influences are usually realized by power. The real influential people are those almighty hands, those people who have a say on your destiny. But I’m not sure if they are afraid to be searched online or just cannot stand up to be searched online, you cannot get any results on the search engines. We are just nobodies on stage under the spotlights, but the theatre is possessed by those real influential powerful people who get to decide to drop the curtain down, shut the lights, cut the electricity, close the door and unleash the dogs at any time; then things become normal again with no traceable hints on what’s just happened. I just wish that these people would do the right thing with their influences on other people; and every single one on stage and maybe even those who helped build the theatre would be able to gradually tear down the high-standing walls and light bulbs. So when sunshine spreads in, no one can never ever crush out the brightness.
订阅：
博文 (Atom)